1st Test Day 4: Ton-up Pathum Nissanka, Dickwella stamp Sri Lanka's authority over listless Windies

Coming back from behind after an ordinary display of batting, Sri Lanka set the hosts West Indies a steep target of 375 runs to win the game and take a 1-0 lead or bat three and a half session to draw the game. Achieving any of the two targets will be a mountainous one for the hosts and Sri Lanka will be the better side than them going into the fifth and final day of the Test.

Windies were rocked early in their effort on late on the fourth day as Vishwa Fernando got an outside edge off John Campbell’s bat to take the tourists further on the path of ascendency.

Before that, it took a heroic century from Pathum Nissanka on debut and a magnificent 96 from Niroshan Dickwella that established Sri Lanka’s resurgence in the game.

Sri Lanka had resumed the play at 255/4 on the fourth day with Dhananjaya de Silva and Pathum Nissanka at the crease. De Silva was quick to get to his fifty with a clip off his pads off Alazarri Joseph, but the celebration did not last long enough as the pacer bounced back rattling the right-hander’s stumps.

Dickwella walked out to bat after the tourists had already taken a sizeable lead and his contributions with the bat would have made the case stronger for the Dimuth Karunaratne-led side. He started off in his typical fashion picking off Joseph through his prominent pickup shot towards the leg side. Joseph’s corrected line of attack on the off-stump was pushed away for boundary and Lanka were up and running on the penultimate day of the Test.

At the other end, Nissanka’s patience was being rewarded with poor balls from Kemar Roach and Jason Holder. Shannon Gabriel’space too could not too much to harm the pair, while the military medium pace of Kayle Mayers was not good enough as Nissanka went past the 50-run mark for the first time.

Roach corrected his length to hit Nissanka on his pads, but the umpire Joel Wilson did not find it hitting the stumps. At the other end, Holder found outside the edge of Dickwella’s bat but Bonner dropped a dolly at the gully, to sum up, Windies’ day in the field.

The chance was enough of the opportunity that the pair threw at the hosts’ bowling lineup and Nissanka reached his test century on debut to become only the fourth Sri Lankan batsman to achieve such feat.

Nissanka departed soon after the century but Dickwella carried on with his attack through unusual shots. Roach found his helmet with a rising delivery when the left-hander was at 95, but the bad luck continued for the hosts’ bowlers as the impact of the ball was not strong enough to shake up the bails on the stumps. Kemar Roach was not done and he got Dickwella played on as the batsman tried to be too cheeky in terms of scoring runs.

Rahkeem Cornwall wiped out the tail after Dickwella’s departure. Kemar Roach and Holder toiled hard for wickets but Sri Lankan batsmen were too rigid in their mindset to let the opportunities of winning a Test match in West Indies slip away from their grasp.

The opening pair of the skipper Kraigg Brathwaite and John Campbell had a task in their hands to defend in the later period of the fourth day and it turned out to be too much for them as Vishwa Fernando provided Sri Lanka with a vital breakthrough.

Sri Lanka have their nose significantly ahead of the Windies going into the fifth and final day fo the Test. However, the hosts can not be written off just yet.