Dav Whatmore pays tribute to Chaminda Vaas after seven-wicket haul

Charlie Austin

November 30, 2001

Sri Lankan coach Dav Whatmore paid tribute to Chaminda Vaas at the end of the second day of the final Test in Colombo after the left-arm pace bowler had ripped through the West Indies batting with the second new ball.

West Indies started the day in pole position but Vaas picked up a career best seven for 120 to bowl out the West Indies for 390 on a batsmen friendly surface at the Sinhalese Sorts Club.

"Chaminda (Vaas) has been threatening to do that for a while now'" said Whatmore. "I just feel that he has turned a corner in the last six months or so. He is able to be as effective with the old ball as he is with the new ball."

Vaas has now taken 19 wickets in the series and Whatmore believes the 27-year-old, playing in his 56th Test, has now emerged as a top-flight fast bowler.

"I think he has found the key, the door is open, and we are going to see the best of Chaminda over the coming years," he said.

"For me he is more at ease with his mind now and doesn't put himself under as much pressure to get results. This has allowed him to relax and allowed him to get much better results."

Yesterday, Vaas had whipped out both openers with the new ball and today he grabbed a further five with the second new ball.

"The wickets came from a combination of perseverance and the fact that he was moving the ball both ways and putting it in the rights areas."

Whatmore now hopes the Sri Lankan batsmen can cash in on a crucial third day.

"We need to get stuck in and get as many as possible in the first innings," he said. "It will be an interesting days play tomorrow."

We have enough batting left if they apply themselves. If we can get through the initial overs tomorrow morning then we can make it very hard for the West Indies bowlers.

Brian Lara, who scored 221 before he was bowled by Vaas shortly before lunch, was disappointed with the collapse but still believes that the team can win the match.

"We are very disappointed. As I said yesterday our plan today was to bat most of the day, but we were under pressure from very early, losing Carl (Hooper) and Marlon (Samuels)," Lara said.

"We are still in with a fighting chance. The pitch seems to be giving a little more help to the fast bowlers than Galle and hopefully we can restrict them to below our score and make them play defensively. We already have three Sri Lankan wickets and lets hope that we can get deep into their lower order tomorrow morning."

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