Chris Gayle

Continuous weather interruptions ensured that the first test of the West Indies tour of Sri Lanka finished in a draw. The test, however, belonged to Chris Gayle, who became the fourth batsman in history to notch up two triple hundreds.

If it was all power hitting on Day 1, where he scored 219 of only 247 balls which included 26 hits to the fence and 8 over them, Day 2 saw calm and composed Gayle. He took 147 balls to score the next 81 runs as he went down on his knees on reaching the triple hundred mark. He batted with a runner towards the end of his innings before he was finally out for 333. The former skipper was well supported by Barath (50), Darren Bravo (58) and Brendan Nash (64). But Mendis wrecked havoc and West Indies lost their last 6 wickets in a heap. He took 6/169 as the tourists crumbled from 559/3 to 580/9 before declaring.

After losing Dilshan overnight, Day 3 saw more than 60 overs being lost due to persistent rains. When play resumed on Day 4, solid contributions from Sangakkara (73), Jayawardene (59), Samaraweera (52) and Prassana Jayawardene (58) helped Sri Lanka to 378, 2 runs short of avoiding the follow on. Dilshan and Tharanga Paranavitana made sure there were no hiccups at the end of Day 4, putting up 88 in quick time.

Day 5 and West Indies needed 10 wickets to force a result. Kemar Roche was on fire early up removing Dilshan and the dangerous Sangakkara in quick succession. But the rest of the bowlers failed to fire as Tharanga and Mahela built a solid partnership. It was a while before Tharanga was pouched in the slips, 5 short of a century while Mahela brought up his second half century of the match. When Sri Lanka had reached 241/4, rains interrupted once again and thus the match ended without a result.

However West Indies, who were the underdogs coming into this match, will take heart from their performance and it was only bad weather that prevented them from going one up in the series.

Tags: Chris Gayle, Cricket, Sri Lanka, Test Cricket, Test Match, West Indies