Sports
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Flintoff sends Lanka packing England will now move on to meet the world champions Australia in the semi finals at Edgbaston on Tuesday and before rain mercifully intervened in the 24th over, Sri Lanka were struggling on 95 for 5 in reply to a formidable 251 for 7 made by England over two days interrupted by rain. England's in-form all rounder Andrew Flintoff was the wrecker-in-chief with a blazing century, but Sri Lankans have only themselves to blame having dropped two easy chances offered by him while the third umpire also offered Flintoff a reprieve, disallowing a possible stumping. Sri Lankan fielding was pathetic to say the least, though the extremely chilly conditions which usually has a numbing effect did not help them. On Friday, Flintoff was on just one when Mahela Jayawardena at the slip dropped a sitter off Chaminda Vaas. At the time the total was on 79 for 3 and Sri Lankans had the perfect opportunity to put England on the defensive. Prior to that, another easy chance given by opener Marcus Trescothick on was grassed by Nuwan Zoysa at mid on off Farveez Maharoof with the total on 29 for 1. The two batsmen went onto rub it on the Lankans and remained unbeaten when rain stopped play at 12.40 p.m. on Friday and made any play impossible for the rest of the day. England who began yesterday on 118 for 3 with Trescothick on 64 and Flintoff on 21, suffered an early set back when spinner Tillekratne Dilshan fielded beautifully off his own bowling and pulled off a stunning run out to dismiss Trescothick after the opener had only added just two runs to his overnight score. Then Dilshan almost reversed Sri Lanka's fortunes when he induced Flintoff on 25 to mistime a pull, but a diving Upul Chandana at midwicket spilled the chance and it was enough for England and Flintoff to forge ahead. Following Trescothick's early dismissal Sri Lanka did not have any respite as Middle order batsman Paul Collingwood made a quick 39 and together with Flintoff, they punished Lankan bowlers in the morning. Seamers Chaminda Vaas and Nuwan Zoysa suffered the brunt of their fury and England hammered 78 runs in the last six overs. Vaas conceded 51 runs while Zoysa gave away 61 runs in their ten overs in contrast to the youngest player in the side, the 20 year old Maharoof who finished with excellent figures of 10-1-19-1 on the previous day. Collingwood was finally caught at deep mid wicket fence by Jayawardena off Vaas in the 48th over while Flintoff was dismissed in the last over, bowled by Vaas off an inside edge for 104. Collingwood and Flintoff added 94 runs for the fifth wicket to bring the total up to 217 from. Sri Lankans lived to regret their decision to go with only three seamers and opt for seven batsmen and missed the services of a fourth seamer sourly. The sunshine in the first hour of the day when England batted was hidden under the cloud cover that hung over the stadium and to the dismay of the Lankans, the ball started seaming around alarmingly. World's number one ranked bowler Steven Harmison struck in his second and third overs removing opener Avishka Gunawardena and skipper Marvan Atapattu both caught behind by Geraint Jones to restrict the Lankans to 15 for 2 and they never realy recovered from the shock losing wickets at regular intervals. Saman Jayantha batted confidently for 23 while Sanath Jayasuriya made 27 off 32 balls before Flintoff removed the two men, Jayantha caught behind and Jayasuriya caught at mid on. Rain was increasingly a possibility and the Lankans were up against it when an apparently Jayawardena in an attempt to increase the scoring rate came out and offered a caught and bowled chance to left arm spinner Ahsley Giles and Sri Lankan fell to 88 for five. This worsened Sri Lanka's chance, and by the time rain finally stopped the match the runs required by Sri Lanka to win under the Duckworth-Lewis system had escalated to 145 while the Lankans were lagging on 95 for 5. |
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