Malinda Warnapura had a very good warm-up game at the Providence Stadium and three days later, as the ground became the 97th to host Test cricket, the left-handed Sri Lankan opener celebrated with a maiden Test century. Warnapura, in his third match, was the aggressor in a century opening stand with Michael Vandort (52) and made the most of a life on 95 to take tea with Sri Lanka on a very healthy 190 for 1. For a West Indies supporter there was little to cheer as the visitors’ left-handed top order batted fluently on a bald, bare surface only certain to get slower.
With no swing, seam movement or bounce the Sri Lankan openers could quite easily come onto the front foot and drive. Warnapura didn’t refrain from going for aerial drives in the arc between cover and point, and his first four was a slash off Jerome Taylor as early as the second over. Daren Powell generated some good pace but his short-pitched stuff was comfortably negated and there were a few too many wide deliveries; one scorching drive through extra cover was especially pleasing.
The square boundaries at the venue were long – certain full-blooded shots would have been four at the old Bourda – and so Warnapura and Vandort relied on their running between the wickets to keep the runs coming. Warnapura was particularly strong on the offside – he scored 86 runs with bottom-hand punches into the covers and past point compared to 27 nudged the other side of the square – and despite driving uppishly he continued to prosper.
West Indies should have had an early wicket but debutant Suleiman Benn, the 268th player for West Indies, missed the stumps from the slips, allowing Vandort a life. Apart from consecutive steers through gully Vandort drove tall and upright, bat close to body. With Warnapura playing so freely at the other end he didn’t need to go hard at the ball and so quietly nudged his way through the first passage of play.
The odd ball from Benn turned – one inside-edge snuck between Vandort’s legs – but there was little for the bowlers to shout about. Only 32 were scored from 17 overs going into lunch but importantly the openers remained together.
They made their way out after the lunch interval and Warnapura began with a free-flowing drive through his preferred arc. Another such extravagant slash just evaded Dwayne Bravo’s fingers over third slip just after and a Vandort leading-edge went just out of Benn’s reach at gully. The 100 stand came up as Vandort slapped Benn through midwicket but he was beaten for appreciable pace and swing by Taylor in the 42nd over, and West Indies had finally broken through. The 131-run partnership was a solid platform.
A big opportunity went begging in the 54th over when an off-balance Bravo spilt a catch at a wide slip. Warnapura rocked back to cut Gayle but the ball flew off the outside-edge to Bravo, who juggled and let it go. Warnapura collected himself for a moment and raised his maiden hundred from 182 deliveries with another cut to point, who fumbled and allowed the single. Further boundaries off the back foot took Warnapura to 114 by the break.
If there was one batsman West Indies would’ve really worried about, it was Sri Lanka’s No. 3. Batting middle stump, Kumar Sangakarra confidently played with the spin, often shuffling across. That he had collected 23 from 53 deliveries so far, adding 60 with a well-set Warnapura, was only bad news for the hosts, whose pre-match confidence had fallen flat on a comatose pitch.
