| Sports |
||||
|
Light relief
for England
Saturday. Dec. 6 - Sri Lanka made a valiant bid to break the 18-month drought, but failed to beat the weather with England sitting on a bed of nails at 210 for 9 chasing 323 for victory here today. "Lankans did everything with an instituted team effort", said skipper Thillekeratne, but thwarted by lady luck. Mercurial Muralitharan nearly performed a miracle when he flattened Batty's stumps. But the England's tail enders though tensed up, held on grimly to the end. Collinwood's 36 runs in 176 minutes was a gallant effort to halt Sri Lanka's aspirations. Barring "Murali" the other spinners couldn't play a decisive role to support the ace spinner the batting all-rounders failed. "The Lankan batsmen were too defensive on day four" said the former England all-rounder Ian Botham, when interviewed by the Sunday Times. "They should have played more positive cricket with a 96 run first innings lead. Bad light stopped play at 5.40 p.m. eventually to let England off the hook." Once again Muralitharan who spearheaded the Lankan attack finished with 11 for 93 and brought his tally to 78 wickets at this venue. England on 84 for 3 at lunch, with not out batsmen Butcher and test debutant Paul Collingwood batting with grim determination posted 50 runs for the 4th wicket. Meanwhile Butcher completed a workmanlike 50 in 153 balls (with 6 fours and a straight 6, off Dharmasena to hoist the 100 in 38.3 overs. It was twin 50s for the England lefthander. In the first essay he made 51 of the English batting. The dogged stand of 52, Vaas coming from the rampart end struck two lethal blows - his 7th and 8th overs. Butcher was caught behind off a deceptive delivery for 54 (with a six and 6 fours). In the next, had Flintoff superbly held by Hashan - 2 wickets for 0. Sri Lanka fielding was at great heights - with skipper Tillekeratne, leading by example. He shuttled the bowlers intelligently putting much pressure on the batsmen. Collingwood, batting with assurance grafted runs methodically on a pitch that was not all that bad for batting. Mike Atherton, the former England captain, who writes a column for the Sunday Telegraph said the pitch was not all that difficult for batting if batted with a lot of application. Read, who joined Collingwood, batted stout-heartedly. Read, read the spinners well. He hit "Murali" for a six, but fell to the bowler for 14. Then it was 148/6 with the light fading. The defiant Collingwood's 36 run knock made in 176 minutes (off 153 balls with 5 fours) was stalled with a brilliant one-handed catch, by Tillekeratne- 170/7 at tea off 70 overs. At this juncture one thought that only rain could save England. With 3 wickets intact with Sri Lanka having plenty of overs to bowl. Second new ball taken - being bowled by Dharmasena and "Murali" instead of Vaas and Fernando. Hoggard and Giles had no problems - 200 in 89.2 overs. After several meter readings umpires Harper and Venkataragavan offered the right to the English batsmen, which they took without hesitation. Rain followed and the match was called off thereafter. SCOREBOARD M. Jayawardene
not out 86 England 2nd
innings Fall of Wickets: 1-16, 2-62, 3-73, 4-125, 5-125, 6-148, 7-170, 8-204, 9-208 Bowling: C.Vass 14-4-23-2 (2 nb), Dinusha Fernando 4-0-29-1 (4 nb), Tilan Samaraweera 3-1-9-0, Sanath Jayasuriya 21-5-31-1 (1 nb), M.Muralideran 37-18-47-4, Upul Chandana 11-2-24-0, Kumara Dharmasena 18-8-36-1 Man of the Match - M. Muralitharan (Match bag 11/93). Next Test match at Asgiriya from December 10-14 |
||||
Copyright © 2001 Wijeya Newspapers Ltd. All rights reserved. |
