Picture Credit: Twitter
The ongoing 2nd Test between Sri Lanka and West Indies at Galle has been a roller coaster so far. The first three days haven't produced too much action on field because of stoppages due to weather but whatever cricket that has been played, it has been spectacular. It was Veerasammy Permaul who was the star of show in first innings as his 5-wicket haul helped the away side restrict Sri Lanka to 204.
It was undoubtedly a wicket assisting the spinners and Sri Lanka's trio came to the party on Day 3 of the match. Ramesh Mendis and Praveen Jayawickrama bowled brilliantly to put pressure on West Indies but it was Lasith Embuldeniya who produced moment of the match.
Although the left-arm spinner could only manage to take one wicket in first half of the day, it was probably one of the best that Test cricket has witnessed in the entire year. It all happened in the 72nd over of the innings when Embuldeniya was up against WI captain Kraigg Brathwaite, who was batting on 72.
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The left-arm spinner bowled a delivery, from over the wicket, which was pitched way outside leg. Braithwaite was drawn forward as he tried to cover the line of delivery but the ball spun quite sharply. The deviation after pitching absolutely bamboozled the batsman and the ball went past his outside edge by some margin before hitting the top of middle stump.
The well-set Braithwaite had been dismissed off probably one of the best deliveries ever bowled by Embuldeniya in his Test career. Something special was needed to send the West Indies captain back to pavilion and the masterclass by Sri Lankan left-arm spinner was certainly quite special.
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The dismissal opened the doors for Sri Lanka to pave their way back into the contest and it was Ramesh Mendis who wreaked havoc after that as he took 4 more wickets in quick interval to put West Indies in a state of bother, with their score reading 212/8 at the time of writing.