West Indies captain Kraigg Brathwaite said he wanted to lead from the front as his side played to a draw against Sri Lanka in the second and final Test of the 2021 Sandals Series at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua today.
Sri Lanka chasing 377 for victory ended on 193 for 2 after both captains decided a result was not possible an hour before the end of today's final day of play.
Dimuth Karunaratne scored 75 and Oshada Fernando an unbeaten 66 against disciplined bowling from the home side that restricted the visitors to 164 runs for the loss of two wickets from the 70 overs bowled today.
However, Brathwaite was awarded the Man-of-the-Match award for his knocks of 126 and 85 that helped bat the visitors out of contention.
"Pleasing winning the award - as captain want to lead from the front,” Brathwaite said afterwards.
“(The) main thing for me was to keep it simple. Bat most balls. Made sure I had a solid plan. I could change my batting style at times, but I am confident I can score at whatever rate I choose to.”
He praised his teammates for the resilience especially in light of the nature of the pitch that was kinder to the batsmen.
“Both pitches were good pitches. But happy guys didn't give up, up to the last spell. Batting 90-plus overs is great. Happy with the attitude and discipline. Happy with the attitude of the bowlers."
Resuming from their overnight total of 29-0 from the nine overs they faced on Thursday evening, Lahiru Thirimanne and Karunaratne took the score to 101 when Thirimane edged Alzarri Joseph to Rahkeem Cornwall at slip. He made 39.
As evidence of how tight the West Indies bowling was Sri Lanka scored 45 runs in the following 17 overs before Kyle Mayers trapped Karunaratne lbw for 75.
However, that was the last wicket to fall on the day as Fernando and Dinesh Chandimal took the score to 193 before play was called off.
Joseph finished with figures of 1-33 while Mayers had 1-5 from the six overs he bowled.
Suranga Lakmal was named player of the series for his 11 wickets.
Happy. I really want to win games, and bowl accordingly - that's what I like to do,” he said. (The) wicket was helping a bit, but I know how to bowl on such wickets. Bowl in right areas and challenging the bowlers is my style."
The two-Test series ended 0-0 as the first Test also ended in a draw.
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