A marathon maiden Test ton from Nkrumah Bonner helped West Indies salvaged a draw in the first Test of the series at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua. Coming into the fifth and final day of the Test, Windies had an uphill task of resisting an impressive Sri Lankan bowling lineup for a whole day.
But, Bonner stood tall right when the team required him to bat big and batsmen around him such as Kayle Mayers and Jason Holder batted with mixed aggression with grit to deny Sri Lanka any chance of running through the batting order to take a 1-0 lead in the series.
Windies had already lost the opener, John Campbell, on the fourth day and the skipper Kraigg Brathwaite has had a task on his hands to get his team off to a solid start. He showed patience against pacers and did not play loosely outside his off stump that had resulted in his dismissal in the first innings.
However, after spending more than three hours on the crease, his patience withered away against the left-arm spinner Lasith Embuldeniya. He danced down the track to hit him over the top and in the process lost his stumps to make the tourists ecstatic.
With both the openers gone by 40 overs, the responsibility of bailing the team out of trouble fell once again on the shoulders of the newest emerging batting talents in the Caribbean—Nkrumah Bonner and Kayle Mayers, who had led Windies to a remarkable series win in Bangladesh.
They started defensively against Embuldeniya and the off-spin of Dhananjaya de Silva. Their task was made tough when Dimuth Karunaratne brougt Dushmantha Chameera into the attack and runs started to dry up. The target was not a key factor fo the pair, but Sri Lankan bowlers understood that prolonged pressure would bring a loose shot.
However, in the battle of who will blink first, Chameera lost and provided a loose delivery outside Bonner’s off stump. The right-hander was all in readiness and thumped the delivery towards the off-side boundary to show confidence.
Chameera bounced back in the next over and caught Mayers in front of the stumps. The umpire did not agree to the loud appeal from Sri Lankans and the skipper opted for a review. The ball was pitched marginally outside the leg stump and Mayers survived the close call. He out all that to rest with a crisp drive off Suranga Lakmal in the next over when the pacer erred by blowing too full to him.
Sri Lanka kept coming at them every now and then though as Embuldeniya found Bonner paying from the crease to a delivery that turned slightly away. This time, the umpire agreed to the appeal and gave the batsman out caught behind, but only to reverse his decision after a review.
Both Bonner and Mayers flourished with confidence and took Windies to the tea interval on the final day. The Windies batsmen had already batted two and a half session out of a total of three and a half sessions they were supposed to bat to save the game.
However, they were jolted right after the tea break as Embuldeniya finally broke through with a delivery wide off Mayer’s off stump and tempting the batsman to go for a booming drive. The edge was found and snaffled up by Lahiru Thirimanne at the slip.
The tourists had an opening with the next man in—Jermaine Blackwood not really known for his defensive batting. He bats with freedom and having taken the second new ball with and many runs left in the bank, Lanka sensed an opportunity against him. Skipper Karunaratne brought Vishwa Fernando to cramp him for room outside off stump and the move paid dividends. The new ball swung for Fernando and yorked Blackwood with an inswinging yorker to ring an alarm for the hosts.
Bonner grew in confidence and was batting fluently in the middle. He jumped quickly past the 80s to get on the brink of his maiden century before Blackwood departed. The wicket did not deter him and when Fernando provided him with a half volley at 99, he smashed it to the boundary to bring up a much-deserving century.
Jason Holder batted superbly to deny Sri Lanka any chance of getting into the lower order batsmen beneath him and the hosts managed to get out of the game with the series still hanging in balance at 0-0.
The second and the last game of the series will be played at the same venue from March 29.