Cricket: Atapattu's marathon

Zimbabwe 286 & 136-3 Sri Lanka 428

MARVAN ATAPATTU scored his second Test double century to keep Sri Lanka in the driving seat on the fourth day of the first Test against Sri Lanka in Bulawayo yesterday.

Sri Lanka, having resumed their first innings on 358 for 6, were dismissed 20 minutes after lunch for 428, giving them a lead of 142. At the close Zimbabwe were 136 for 3.

Atapattu, 109 overnight, carried his bat for 216. His 437-ball innings lasted more than 10 hours and included 24 fours. Zimbabwe's fast bowler Henry Olonga took the final wicket of the innings to finish with 4 for 103, while the left-arm seamer Bryan Strang picked up three wickets to finish on 3 for 91.

When Zimbabwe batted a second time they lost Gavin Rennie and Murray Goodwin, both to the left-arm fast bowler Chaminda Vaas, in the first 11 overs. Neil Johnson.kept Zimbabwe's head above water with an unbeaten 52.

Fourth day; Sri Lanka won toss

ZIMBABWE - First Innings 286 (M Goodwin 61, A Flower 86; Wickramasinghe 6-60).

SRI LANKA - First Innings

(overnight 358-8)

M S Atapattu not out 216

W P U J C Vaas c Campbell b Strang 9

G P Wickramasinghe c A Flower

b Strang 13

M Muralitharan c G Flower b Olonga 6

Extras (12b, 11lb, 1w, 6nb) 30

Total 428

Fall: 1-85, 2-98, 3-141, 4-159, 5-238, 6-345, 7-372, 8-390, 9-415.

Bowling: Olonga 32-6-103-4 (2nb, 1w); Strang 30-9-91-3 (1nb); Brent 32- 12-55-2; A Whittall 35-6-105-1 (1nb); G Whittall 14-3-48-0; G Flower 4- 2-3-0.

ZIMBABWE - Second Innings

G W Flower c Dilshan b Muralitharan 48

G J Rennie c Kaluwitharana b Vaas 2

M W Goodwin c Dilshan b Vaas 2

N Johnson not out 52

*A Flower not out 15

Extras (b1, lb4, nb12) 17

Total (for 3) 136

Fall: 1-8, 2-27, 3-72.

Bowling: Vaas 13-4-27-2 (2nb); Gallage 11-4-24-0 (3nb); Wickramasinghe 8-1-20-0 (1nb); Muralitharan 14-3-50-1 (6nb); Arnold 2-0-9-0; Jayasuriya 1-0-1-0.