Jayasuriya leads Lankan run parade

Jayasuriya punished the bowlers, especially medium-pacer Jacques Kallis and left-arm spinner Paul Adams, from each of whom he took three consecutive fours in one over, when they erred in line and length. The left-handed opener narrowly missed scoring a century before lunch when he was unbeaten on 96 out of a total of 145. Only Australians Victor Trumper, Charlie McCartney and Don Bradman and, Pakistan’s Majid Khan had achieved this feat on the first day of a Test match.

Jayasuriya eventually completed his seventh Test hundred in the fourth over after the lunch break with a single to mid-off off Shaun Pollock. The century took him 132 minutes and came off 103 balls out of a total of 149. Jayasuriya’s innings was finally terminated at 211 when he went to hit left-arm spinner Paul Adams once too often and holed out to Neil McKenzie at deep mid wicket. He batted for 192 minutes and with Atapattu who scored 54, shared a first wicket partnership of 193.

Atapattu fell to Makhaya Ntini when he cut uppishly off the back foot only to see the ball fly to Nicky Boje at gully. Adams also took the wickets of Russel Arnold, who got an inside edge on the sweep to wicket-keeper Mark Boucher for five, and Arjuna Ranatunga for 13 when he drove uppishly to be caught by a diving Pollock at wide mid-off.

Ranatunga, a veteran of 91 Tests, announced at the start of the Test that he was retiring from international cricket at the end of the series.

South Africa also took the wicket of debutant Kumar Sangakkara for 23, when he was trapped lbw by left-arm spinner Nicky Boje, ending a fourth wicket stand of 81 with Mahela Jayawardene.

Jayawardene was unbeaten on 78 at the close having batted 172 minutes and hit one six and 11 fours.

Adams, who successfully came through a fitness test this morning, took three wickets but was expensive conceding 122 runs off 24 overs which included 19 fours and two sixes. He was unlucky on two occasions when wicket-keeper Mark Boucher failed to stump Sangakkara at five and missed a catch offered by Jayewardene at 23.

The usually reliable South African fielding was nowhere near its best with Jonty Rhodes letting off Jayasuriya at cover point off Pollock when the batsman had made only 20.

SRI LANKA: (1st innings)

M Atapattu c Boje b Ntini 54
S Jayasuriya c McKenzie b Adams 148
R Arnold c Boucher b Adams 5
M Jayewardene not out 78
K Sangakkara lbw Boje 23
A Ranatunga c Pollock b Adams 13
K Dharmasena not out 4
Extras: (b-5, lb-9, nb-2) 16
Total (5 wkts, 93 overs) 341
Fall of wickets: 1-193, 2-211, 3-216, 4-297, 5-318.

Bowling: Pollock 19-4-53-0 (1nb), Kallis 11-4-31-0 (1nb), Ntini 14-1-45-1, Adams 24-2-122-3, Klusener 9-2-30-0, Boje 16-2-46-1.