Cricket: De Silva leading the charge

West Indies 147 and 343 Sri Lanka 222 and 97-2

Brian Lara's carefully crafted 115 allowed the West Indies to set Sri Lanka a challenging but achievable target of 269 for victory in the enthralling second Test here yesterday.

Courtney Walsh struck twice in the 20 overs available in Sri Lanka's second innings at the end of the day, bowling the dangerous Sanath Jayasuriya for 17 and Marvan Atapattu for 10.

That raised home hopes but a blazing counter-attack by Aravinda de Silva, who lashed seven fours in an unbeaten 34 off 28 balls by the end, carried Sri Lanka to 97 for 2, 172 short of what would be only their fourth Test win on foreign soil since their elevation to this status in 1982.

De Silva, in his 61st Test, hit four boundaries in one over off Ian Bishop, which startled West Indians on and off the field and lifted Sri Lankan spirits.

The West Indies, who had surrendered a first-innings deficit of 75 with their first-day collapse for 147, were all out three-quarters of an hour after tea for 343. Lara received only minimal support from his partners and it was left to an eighth-wicket partnership of 52 between Roland Holder and Curtly Ambrose to boost West Indian hopes.

Lara's century was his 10th in Test matches and he joined 10 other West Indians to pass 4,000 Test runs during the course of it - but no one else could stay long enough to give the West Indies the advantage that would have put the match out of their opponents' reach.

Fourth day; Sri Lanka won toss

WEST INDIES - First Innings 147 (C L Hooper 81; K R Pushpakumara 5-41).

SRI LANKA - First innings 222 (S T Jayasuriya 90; C L Hooper 5-26).

WEST INDIES - Second Innings

(Overnight: 128 for 2)

B C Lara c Jayasuriya b Dharmasena 115

F L Reifer c Kaluwitharana b Pushpakumara 18

C L Hooper c Kaluwitharana b Dharmasena 34

R I Holder hit wicket b Muralitharan 34

I A Bishop lbw Muralitharan 0

C O Browne lbw Muralitharan 0

C E L Ambrose c Kaluwitharana b S de Silva 31

F A Rose not out 0

*C A Walsh b Muralitharan 0

Extras (b4, lb21, nb7) 32

Total 343

Fall (cont): 1-62 2-92 3-143 4-240 5-272 6-272 7-286 8-339 9-343.

Bowling: S de Silva 17-1-62-1 (nb1), Pushpakumara 19-2-81-2, Muralitharan 41-13-113-5 (nb5), Dharmasena 25-4-62-2 (nb1).

SRI LANKA - Second Innings

S T Jayasuriya b Walsh 17

R S Mahanama not out 26

M S Atapattu b Walsh 10

P A de Silva not out 34

Extras (nb10) 10

Total (for 2) 97

Fall: 26, 55.

To bat: *A Ranatunga, R S Kaluwitharna, S Ranatunga, H D P K Dharmasena, K R Pushpakumara, S C de Silva, M Muralitharan.

Bowling: Ambrose 6-0-21-0 (nb5); Walsh 7-0-27-2 (nb3); Rose 3-0-13-0 (nb2), Bishop 3-0-32-0, Hooper 1-04-0.

Umpires: S A Bucknor (WI) and D B Cowie (NZ).