Kyle Mayers and Jason Holder put on 63 for the 7th wicket, before Rakheem Cornwall and Joshua Da Silva combined for 49 for the 9th wicket to take West Indies past the follow-on mark on day 3 of the 1st Test, before rain washed off more than half of the day’s play.
Sri Lanka’s bowling was loose during the 1st hour of play, with the spinners unable to find the right lengths to the overnight batters Mayers and Holder, who took full advantage, finding the boundary regularly against Lasith Embuldeniya, Ramesh Mendis and Praveen Jayawickrama.
With Sri Lanka not looking to enforce the follow-on, even if presented the opportunity, the hosts went on the defensive pretty quickly early on, with fielders in the deep to both Mayers and Holder.
Sri Lanka’s 2 breakthroughs during the 1st session came thanks to some excellent fielding from Dimuth Karunaratne and Dushmantha Chameera.
Dhananjaya de Silva struck first, getting one to stop on Kyle Mayers, who pushed at the ball with hard hands, lobbing one to short extra cover, where Karunaratne took a diving catch.
Holder went for a big one against Jayawickrama and only succeeded in edging it to backward point, where Chameera’s leap saw him holding on to the catch with ease.
Cornwall and da Silva looked comfortable in the hour that followed, taking West Indies past the follow on mark but didn’t survive long in the post-lunch session.
Cornwall fell in the hunt for quick runs, bounced out by Suranga Lakmal, the delivery before the new ball became available.
Unfortunately, that’s all the play the day was able to produce, with a steady drizzle in the next couple of hours forcing the officials to call stumps early.
