West Indian preparations may well have been bedeviled by poor weather andinjuries, but that did not hinder the performance of star batsmen BrianLara, who announced his return to Test cricket with a brilliant hundred onthe opening day of this

Charlie Austin13-Nov-2001West Indian preparations may well have been bedeviled by poor weather andinjuries, but that did not hinder the performance of star batsmen BrianLara, who announced his return to Test cricket with a brilliant hundred onthe opening day of this three-Test series against Sri Lanka at Galle onTuesday.Number three batsman Ramnaresh Sarwan and star player Brian Lara frustratedSri Lanka in enervating heat as they added 145 for the third wicket to leaveWest Indies well placed on 316 for three at the close.Sarwan played diligently and well to score 88, particularly in an afternoonsession that saw 125 runs scored. Lara’s innings, though, overshadowed thatof the promising Guyanan, who missed out on a first Test century.Coming to the crease after the fall of opener Daren Ganga, with the inningspoised on 95 for two, Lara sped to a 71 ball fifty full of sublime strokesand tilted the game firmly towards the West Indies.The 32-year-old Trinidadian then marched on, despite the loss of Sarwan andwith a certain sense of inevitability, to his 16th Test century, which hecompleted off just 150 balls, before finishing the day unbeaten on 117.For Lara it ended a long wait. International runs had not dried up, but hisbig scores had. It was 11 months since he scored a ton – the last being 182he scored against Australia in Adelaide last December – and it was his firstin 16 innings.Lara, included in the squad despite still suffering from a long-standinghamstring injury, showed no signs of not being fully fit and, temporarily atleast, silenced critics who believe he is a spent force, with too much egoand too little heart.It was great innings in very taxing conditions. Modestly, he said afterwardsthat he had “enjoyed the sea breeze” but conditions were tough, withtemperatures in excess of 30 C and 90 per cent humidity levels. He alsohad to contend with master off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan.Unlike in Colombo, when he had scratch out 43 and looked a shadow of hisformer self, he batted fluently, clearly determined to be positive againstthe Sri Lankan spinners.He hit 12 boundaries in all, some of which were simply dazzling, including atrademark one-legged flick through mid-wicket of Vaas, a dancing lofteddrive off Jayasuriya and several vintage cover drives.He was reprieved twice by the Sri Lankans, who had a day to forget in thefield. Wicket-keeper Kumar Sangakkara dropped a difficult chance off SanathJayasuriya when the left-hander had scored 31 and then also failed to gethis glove to an edge (it was an even harder catch) when on 93.Speaking afterwards, he said: “I have been working on a few things in thelast six weeks and I am looking to try and play a bit straighter. It’ isnice to go out there, work on something, and eventually get the results.The only bowler to consistently test Lara was Muralitharan, who toiled awayfor 40 overs, picking only one wicket, but still bowled with plenty ofvariation, guile and control.”Muralitharan is a very good bowler and I enjoyed the competition,” he said.”I think you have to keep him thinking. He is going to keep you underpressure if you just look to stay there, so I think you need to keepscoring.”It’s a very good position but it is very important that the second inningsis not a very important innings. We need to get 500-600 runs and put SriLanka under pressure. We cannot allow them to get back into the game.”Ominously, the man who holds the record for the highest Test and first classscore, also added: “I’m very happy now, but I am going to come back tomorrowand look for something really big.”Sri Lanka had picked three frontline spinners in the team, hoping that theCaribbean batsmen would come unstuck on a biscuit dry pitch tailor made fortheir slow bowlers. Such hopes soon evaporated after they lost an importanttoss and realised just how good a batting pitch it was.Chaminda Vaas bowled well with the new ball, producing a jaffa to dismiss asurprisingly diffident Chris Gayle, and then accounting for Ganga afterlunch. But thereafter only Muralitharan threatened.Earlier in the day the Sri Lankans had picked right-arm seamer CharithaFernando for his first Test match and recalled left-arm spinner NiroshanBandaratillake and middle order batsman Russel Arnold.West Indies played a second frontline spinner, slow left-arm bowler NeilMcGarrell, apparently after deciding the pitch would favour the spinners,but most probably because of Reon Kings suspected hernia.