OWN CORRESPONDENT, Harare | Tuesday 6.00pm.
SRI Lanka captain Sanath Jayasuriya snapped up four wickets in 15 balls as his team won the second test against Zimbabwe by six wickets on the fifth and final day on Tuesday.
Jayasuriya’s left-arm spin polished off Zimbabwe’s second innings for 292 immediatly before lunch, the last four wickets tumbling for eight runs.
That left Sri Lanka to make just 35 for victory but they were shaken when four wickets crashed for 20 before Romesh Kaluwitharana hit the winning runs to put his side 1-0 ahead in the three-test series.
Seamer Gary Brent jolted the touring team by dispatching Jayasuriya, Russel Arnold and Tillekaratne Dilshan in a spell of three for 21.
Zimbabwe had started the day on 235 for six, needing 258 to avoid an innings defeat, and reached 284 without further loss before Jayasuriya struck 20 minutes before lunch.
Home captain Andy Flower was first to go when he sliced a catch to Marvan Atapattu, ending his defiant innings of 129.
The dismissal broke a seventh-wicket partnership of 125 between Flower and Guy Whittall, who went on to make an unbeaten 53.
Henry Olonga was last out, trapped leg before without scoring, as Jayasuriya finished with his test-best figures of four for 40.
Flower blamed himself for Zimbabwe’s collapse. ”I lost concentration and played a bad shot that turned the last day around,” he said
Dilshan was named man-of-the-match for his undefeated 163 in Sri Lanka’s first innings, when Jayasuriya said he ”batted magnificently well”. — Reuters