Out, but not down

In terms of experience, they look a baby-faced bunch. But the West Indies have character, competitiveness and flair, and a captain of few wo...

In terms of experience, they look a baby-faced bunch. But the West Indies have character, competitiveness and flair, and a captain of few words but big on temperament.

And once the after-match presentation awards were out of the way, the full squad was put through a rigorous bleep test session where they run a series of 20 metre dashes. This is the shape of Shivnarine Chanderpaul8217;s new-look team. A squad that was sneered at by some as being a bunch of B-grade nobodies, hijacked into signing contracts.

Instead, for a while, they shook up the more experience Sri Lanka opponents and Jamaican tearaway Jermain Lawson, with eight wickets to his credit, threatened to spoil the 150th Test match party on Saturday.

In the end the West Indies succumbed by six wickets on the fourth afternoon.

When Marvan Atapattu admitted that he felt Chanderpaul8217;s decision to bat first was a brave one, it showed what type of character they have.

Today8217;s strokeplay by Thilan Samaraweera at least showed that there are batsmen around who are prepared to take on fast bowling and his duel with the West Indies bowlers was as entertaining as any we may see in this shortened series.

Chiminda Vaas and Muttiah Muralitharan were star performers. Vaas collected seven wickets and showed why he is such a dangerous bowler in humid conditions. Of more interest, though, was Murali8217;s second-innings haul of six wickets, his 45th. Coming back after an 11-month lay off, two shoulder operations, and some average bowling for Lancashire and in the first innings, it was his off-spin on a slow turner that bamboozled the West Indies lower order and set up the victory.

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They are all lessons from which Greg Chappell and India might take notes, as it could be an interesting few months what with the triangular and the split tours of India later in the year.

Brief scores

West Indies 285 and 113 S Chanderpaul n.o.48; M Muralitharan 6/36 lost to Sri Lanka 227 and 175-4 M Jayawardene 41 n.o., T Samaraweera 51; Lawson 4/43.