Craig Ervine makes Sri Lanka sweat

Dinesh Chandimal wasted no time in introducing his best bowler when Zimbabwe looked steady in the first seven overs. Rangana Herath came in and set jitters in the Zimbabwean batting line-up. From 23 for 0 they were found reeling at 38 for 3 and at 70 for 4, Sikandar Raza, the brilliant allrounder joined the stubborn Craig Ervine, who was serving the role of a mere spectator at the other end while his partners were walking for the pavilion after a short stay at the crease.

A reverse-sweep off Herath’s vicious turning delivery broke the shackles and with Raza, Ervine stitched a partnership of 84 runs. But Herath was in no mood to watch a partnership flourish and trapped Raza lbw. 154 for 5 became 195 for 6 when Asela Gunarathne removed Peter Moor. Malcolm Waller joined Ervine to arrest a collapse, but their 65-run stand could not stop Zimbabwe from struggling at 282 for 8.

Ervine was not even bothered about the tricky situation and at present, he is brimming with confidence and bursting with energy. He is confident of clawing back into the game from any situation and marshalled the innings even when Zimbabwe lost hope of reaching more than 300 runs.

Even under pressure, he did not lose his composure to execute the drives off the back foot against pace bowlers and take risks by executing the reverse sweep whenever he thought, the vacant third man area could be utilised very well. Ervine has no huge experience of playing five-day matches, but still, the way he handled the threat of Herath, Lakmal and Perera was praiseworthy and his 151 would remain one of the best knocks of this year. He has not finished yet and the kind of confidence he and his fellow partner Tiripano exhibited today, one can expect Sri Lanka to struggle a bit more in the first session of day 2.      

Thank You

Faisal Caesar