Day 2 is in the books, and overall you'd say that the West Indies have their noses in front. But that was hugely due to Cornwall and da Silva. The young keeper/batsman continues to show that he can play time more than anything else. His strike rate might only be in the mid-thirties, but that doesn't seem to faze him at all. He was out to a shot that he really shouldn't have been playing, and honestly the ramp/uppercut is the type of shot you don't even associate with him. I think he figured it was easy enough to get it over the slips and down to the boundary to bring up yet another Test fifty for him. Unfortunately that was not to be. And that's really tough on him, because he deserved fifty. He has nobody to blame but himself for that lapse in concentration, and he'll want to make up for it the next time around.
Cornwall, meanwhile, played the sort of innings I've come to expect from him. He's a naturally attacking batsman, and he has good timing and quick hands. What I liked seeing was his judgement. There weren't any loose shots from him, as far as I can recall...okay maybe one that fell well short of deep fine leg. He respected the good deliveries and put away the ones that needed putting away. He didn't play away from his body too much, and didn't try anything out of the ordinary. There were a few shots played in the V that were really pleasant viewing.
For obvious reasons, you don't expect sharp singles with Cornwall in the middle. And it shows in his breakdown - 60 runs off of 79 balls, with 48 of those coming in boundaries. But in addition to the other 12 runs, he also ran several singles and some doubles for da Silva. That was nice to see from him. Nothing was sharp or fast, but it's Big Jimbo Cornwall we're talking about. Pretty nice to see him actually looking for the single at times when he was backing up too. Not something I expected, but something I was happy with.
Before that big partnership, Holder was looking good. But Lakmal was bowling really well and getting some movement. Holder didn't know much about the ball that got him out, but he was playing too far away from his body. Don't like to see that. Even if you don't cover the line of the ball, hanging your bat out so far away is just asking for trouble. Joseph got a ball that wasn't the best Lakmal will bowl, but it did move a little again and instead of hitting the middle and going through that gap in the covers, it took the outer half and peeled away to point. The catches don't come much easier than that one. The ball was there to be hit, yes, but Joseph was still new to the crease. I'd have liked to have seen him get a feel for how the conditions were playing before he started letting loose. Cornwall did that and is not out overnight. So lesson to be learned there for Joseph...who can find his spot on the team in some doubt if he doesn't come up big with the ball in the second innings. (EDIT: Ooh, just saw that he'll be playing County Cricket for some time. I like that, it's going to go a long way in his development.)
I didn't see any play before tea, but did catch the wicket replays during the broadcast. A very uncharacteristic way for Brathwaite to get out, he doesn't normally fish for those wide ones. But he was 3 off of 43, so I suppose he was trying to force his game a little too much. The rest of the top order all got starts with nobody going on. Taking this match in isolation, that's not too terrible because Sri Lanka pretty much did the same. However this isn't something that they'd want to make a habit of. Bonner has 2 fifties from just 5 innings so far, and has always been a solid batsman, he just got trapped in the crease by a good one. When I saw the full-speed replay there was no doubt for me. Cricinfo says it was umpire's call. Definitely didn't look that way at all. Campbell...well, he maybe did about enough for the time being. Good ball to get him out. Blackwood had no right trying to play the shot he did. He's a better batsman than to just gift them his wicket. There was nothing overly special about the delivery, it was just one of those you-miss-I-hit ones. And Blackwood missed. Mayers got a really good ball. He won't score 200 everytime he comes out to bat, however until he makes another score of note, that innings will hound him. 45 was a good start, and it took a good ball to dismiss him. So that 200 wasn't self-contained. But he does need another score or two.
Sri Lanka did well to get the 8 wickets so far. It was shaping up to be a very good day for them, but that 8th wicket partnership denied them the chance to wrap things up cheaply. As it stands, the lead is just about 100 or so, and any further runs the West Indies get will be vital. Sri Lanka could very well find themselves 2 or 3 wickets down before the deficit is erased, and the higher the deficit is, the more chances there are to get even more wickets. Sri Lanka could effectively find themselves 0 for 3 and now looking to build a total to defend.
Roach won't do a lot of scoring. He can hang in there, but he's no batsman by any means. You might see one or two shots from him but by and large he's going to be defending. It's going to be up to Cornwall to do the bulk of the scoring and as we've seen, he's very capable of that. If the pair can add another 20 or 30 runs I'll be happy. Anything else I'll be ecstatic. Gabriel is...well he might as well just come out to bat wearing his bowling boots, it won't be much longer before he'll have to bowl in any case.
Tomorrow is a very important day in the context of the match. Whoever comes out ahead by the end of play will probably go on to win the match.
