TELFORD VICE, Harare | Friday 6.15pm.
ZIMBABWE crawled to a painstaking 163 for nine after Sri Lankan left-arm paceman Nuwan Zoysa rocked them with a hat-trick off his first three deliveries on the opening day of the second test on Friday.
Zoysa shattered Zimbabwe’s top order when he removed Trevor Gripper, Murray Goodwin and Neil Johnson with the first three balls of the second over of the match before the home side had a run on the board.
A dogged 74 by captain Andy Flower enabled Zimbabwe to stage a partial recovery but he was dismissed shortly before the close by paceman Chaminda Vaas after a 332-minute innings in which he faced 224 balls and hit five fours and a six.
Flower began the recovery with a 53-run partnership with his brother Grant (19) and then added 80 for the fifth wicket with Alistair Campbell who made 36.
None of the other eight batsmen made more than four runs.
Zoysa, returning from a back injury to play in his eighth test, made full use of a helpful pitch after Sri Lanka won the toss and sent Zimbabwe in to bat.
He trapped Gripper leg before offering no stroke, Goodwin edged a high bouncing delivery to wicketkeeper Romesh Kaluwitharana and Johnson was leg before to a ball which hit him low on the front pad.
It was the first test hat-trick by a Sri Lankan and the first against Zimbabwe, and it came in Sri Lanka’s 95th test match.
The Flower brothers batted sensibly to take Zimbabwe to lunch on 46 for three but five overs into the second session Grant Flower was yorked by off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan.
Andy Flower and Campbell saw out the second session for Zimbabwe to reach 112 for four at tea but 40 minutes into the final session the fifth-wicket partnership was ended when Campbell played across the line and was trapped in front by fast bowler Pramodya Wickramasinghe.
Seven balls later Guy Whittall swung wildly at a ball from Muralitharan to be bowled for one, followed by Gary Brent being caught behind off Vaas for three.
Zoysa, who had figures of three for five from his opening six overs, finished the day with three for 22 from 13 overs. — Reuters
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