After a disappointing opening day where runs were leaked at a brisk rate, Sri Lanka bounced back strongly on day two by pocketing the morning session. The Zimbabweans were barely able to combine 54 runs to their overnight score, and were bowled out for 406. The spin duo of Lasith Embuldeniya and Dhananjaya de Silva shared the scalps this morning, to redeem themselves a bit after copping a lot of stick from Zimbabwe’s batsmen yesterday.
It was Embuldeniya who started things off by getting rid of Regis Chakabva with one that spun away sharply to find the edge, with Niroshan Dickwella making no mistake behind the sticks. Tinotenda Mutombodzi then fell, attempting a wild sweep shot to a delivery that was quite full and was trapped LBW. Donald Tiripano tried to use the long handle but couldn’t last long, holing out to long-off against Embuldeniya who wrapped things up by dislodging Victor Nyauchi.
Sri Lanka’s openers then negotiated the brief three-over burst before lunch to end a satisfying morning’s work but they have a solid task at hand. Despite not adding too many to their overnight score, Zimbabwe still has a healthy total on a pitch that has started to show signs of wear and tear already, with the oddball keeping low and plenty of spin also on offer.
Brief scores: Zimbabwe 406 (Williams 107, Raza 72, Embuldeniya 4-182) vs Sri Lanka 6/0
