Galle, Sri Lanka – West Indies off-spinner Shane Shillingford believes he could be the man to bowl the Windies to their first Test match win in Sri Lanka. The self-assured 27-year-old is backing himself to do the job as the Windies seek to maintain their dominance in the 1st ERI Test at the Galle International Stadium when play resumes on Friday.
Shillingford returned career-best figures of 4-123 off 33.2 overs as Sri Lanka were dismissed for 378 – 202 behind the Windies first innings 580-9 declared. The home side was forced to follow-on and reached 89-0 in the second innings from far. They require another 113 to make West Indies bat again.
Shillingford will be a major threat to the experienced Sri Lanka batting line-up on what is still an excellent pitch for batting. He bettered his previous best figures of 3-96 against South Africa in June.
"I’m going to give it my all. We want to win, we believe we can win and we are going for the win. We are in a good position and everybody is talking about winning the match so we will all have the same mindset when we take the field tomorrow (Friday). We have worked hard so far on tour and we have done some very good things in this match up to this point. We want to continue and look for the win," Shillingford said.
"It was a lot of hard work out there. Test match cricket is hard work. I’m happy I got some results to show. I was pleased with the way I got my wickets. The coach and the captain asked me to build pressure from one end and today it showed that once you build the pressure you will get wickets. I want to go out and continue from where I left off. A victory in this match would be the ideal way to start the series."
Play will resume on Friday at 9.45 am (12.15 am Eastern Caribbean Time/11.15 pm Thursday Jamaica Time).