Archives

By Sa'adi Thawfeeq

In its 124-year-old history, Test cricket has never been ridiculed as it was at the SSC grounds yesterday, when two Sri Lankan batsmen retired themselves out without being dismissed.

Marvan Atapattu who scored 201 and Mahela Jayawardene 150, both went down in the score book as retired out as Sri Lanka amassed 555 for five wickets declared in reply to Bangladesh's first innings 90 all out.

By stumps on the second day of this inaugural Test which is also a segment of the Asian Test Championships, Bangladesh had wiped out 100 runs of their massive deficit of 465, but lost four wickets in the process.

Off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan was once again there nemesis capturing three of the wickets for 31 runs. He took five for 13 in the first innings and will play a leading role in Sri Lanka capturing the remaining six Bangladesh wickets sometime today. There was nothing against the rules to prevent a batsman from retiring out.

In fact, Law 2 which deals with such instances states: "If a batsman retires for any reason other than as in (a), he may resume his innings only with the consent of the opposing captain. If for any reason he decides not to resume his innings, it is to be recorded as "Retired - out". Law 2 (a) states: "If a batsman retires because of illness, injury or any other unavoidable cause, he is entitled to resume his innings..." Although Sri Lanka did not transgress any laws of the game, such an action has never been recorded in any of the previous 1560 Test matches. Such an instance is not even recorded in the Wisden Book of Test Cricket under its section on Unusual Dismissals. So yesterday's instance makes it the first in its entirety.

This sort of dismissals are quite familiar in practice games on tour when batsmen retire themselves out in order to give the others a batting turn in the middle. It has never happened before in a Test match.

What it clearly spelt out was the size of the opposition was not good enough to play at this level of cricket. The Sri Lankan batsmen made such a mockery of the Bangladesh bowling that it was made to look like schoolboy stuff. There was enough runs for the picking and Atapattu and Jayawardene helped themselves to 171 in 172 minutes between them for the third wicket.

Tha batsmen who failed (if that is the right word to use in the circumstance) to capitalise on such mediocre bowling were Kumar Sangakkara who added only five to his overnight score and was dismissed for 54, and debutant Michael Vandort whose dismissal for 36, 19 minutes before the tea break, brought to an end Bangladesh's misery, as Sanath Jayasuriya finally decided to halt the massacre by closing the Sri Lanka innings at 555 for five. It was the second time in a week Sri Lanka had crossed the 500-run mark on this ground. The previous one was 610 for 6 declared against India. By reaching a double hundred Atapattu moved to fourth in the all-time list of Test double-century makers behind Don Bradman, Wally Hammond and Javed Miandad (see box).

Before achieving that Atapattu first got to his eighth Test hundred in the first over of the morning, by tucking off-spinner Naimur Rahman to short fine leg for a single. It took him 197 minutes and 165 balls and comprised 14 fours.

Atapattu's overnight partner Sangakkara soon followed by reaching his fifth Test fifty in 117 minutes off 101 balls with five fours, but was soon dismissed when he cut a ball straight to cover point, ending a 125-run liaison in 127 minutes for the second wicket.

Jayawardene joining Atapattu continued the assault on th e Bangladesh bowlers. Atapattu went to his 150 in 267 minutes off 214 balls with 21 fours and at lunch was three runs away from his double century.

Jayawardene survived a return catch at 27 to Mohammad Sharif to complete his half-century in 66 minutes off 44 balls with eight fours. His share was 82 in a morning session that produced a staggering 190 runs off 30 overs, Atapattu making 98 of them.

The carnage continued well into the afternoon as Atapattu and Jayawardene stretched their third wicket partnership to worth 171 runs at almost a run a minute. Atapattu moved to his double hundred serenely using up 255 balls and batting for 318 minutes with 27 fours before retiring to the coolness of the dressing room. He made Bangladesh pay dearly for the two chances they put down at 56 and 66 on the first day. Jayawardene moved to his third century in as many Tests in 119 minutes and 81 balls with 17 fours with a pull through mid-wicket, and played the major role in a 90-run fourth wicket partnership in 65 minutes with Vandort. His third fifty came off only 30 balls with the aid of nine fours and one six.

Batting had never been looked to be so simple when he was at the wicket.

Overall, Jayawardene batted for three hours for his 150 using up 115 balls and hit 26 fours and a six.

Atapattu who survived two chances at 56 and 66 on the first day, had batted 315 minutes for his score of 197 and hit 26 fours.

BANGLADESH - 1ST INNINGS 90

SRI LANKA - 1ST INNINGS
(Overnight 246-1)

M. S. Atapattu retired out			201 
S. T. Jayasuriya lbw b Rahman			 89
K. Sangakkara c Aminul b Hasibul		 54
D. P. M. Jayawardene retired out		150
M. G. Van dort c Aminul b Rahman		 36
H. P. Tillakaratne not out			 10
Extras (lb-5, nb-8, w-2)			 15	

TOTAL (5 wkts decl., 103.3 overs, 416 mins)	555

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-144, 2-269, 3-440, 4-530.
DID NOT BAT: T. T. Samaraweera, W. P. U. J. C. Vaas,
M. Muralitharan, K. R. Pushpakumara,
P. D. R. L. Perera.

BOWLING:
Manjural 18-1-94-0, Sharif 17-0-120-0 (1w, 1nb),
Hasibul 23-6-122-1 (1w,6nb), Rahman30.3-8-117-2, 
Ashraful 10-0-63-0 (1nb), Bashar 5-0-34-0.

BANGLADESH - 2ND INNINGS

Javed Omar lbw b Muralitharan			 40
Mebrab Hossain lbw b Muralitharan		  4
Mohammad Al-Shariar lbw b Samaraweera		  7
Aminul Islam not out				 19
Habibul Bashar c Jayawardene b Muralitharan	 19
Mohammad Ashraful not out			  4
Extras (b-3, lb-1, nb-3)			  7

TOTAL (4 wkts at close, 37 overs, 145 mins)	100

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-31, 2-54, 3-54, 4-81.
BOWLING: Vaas 5-2-11-0,  Pushpakumara 3-1-10-0,
Muralitharan 13-2-31-3, R. Perera 4-1-11-0 (3nb),
Samaraweera 9-2-19-1, Jayasuriya 3-0-14-0.

News | Business | Features | Editorial | Security
Politics | World | Letters | Sports | Obituaries |

Produced by Lake House
Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
Comments and suggestions to :Web Manager