Sports

Sports

Eye - catching cricket
The Cricket witnessed on the third day of the second unofficial test between Sri Lanka "A" was enthralling, attractive and at times even ridiculous considering that there was a full days play still available. Primarily these tours must be a part of discovering players for the future and giving experience to those selected all of whom are players knocking on the door. Winning or not losing is good but not all important. What winning does is that it breeds a habit. Should a player not be in a winning team, he will never know what winning is all about or how to approach a game with an ambition and a plan to win. It is similar to a top order batsman scoring his first century. Until it happens once the approach, the art of building an innings and then going on until the three figure mark remains is an unknown factor. Do it once, hang on to all that was learnt in the process and without question. Winning is no different.

England "A" won the first test comfortably, It was very creditable for them to come out of spring weather conditions into the prevailing heat have and then performed in that fashion. The pitch condition, the ground conditions, the light, the food all contribute to the challenge of performing in foreign conditions. So young England have performed creditably. They continued in the same vein during the first half of the day one in the second game, played at the NCL grounds. Then in the post tea session the pendulum swung as Malinga Bandara began to emerge, resurrected to a new lease of leg spin bowling.

This is a sport in which a team must look to win every session. If not come close to doing that. Let the opposition get ahead by a margin and the come back becomes a hard grind. The tourists had lost half of their side by the end of the day but exchanges were even. The second morning brought about the reversal. Bandara, like a man possessed ripped through the English middle order and tail and restricted their lead to only twelve runs.

It was the time for the home team to capitalise and nail their opponents. The pitch had eased. England did not have potent bowling ammunition. The situation was ideal for two top order batsmen to get centuries and a few others to provide supporting scores and then set England an ungettable target.

Only Shantha Kalavitigoda came close to reaching a ton. He made two half centuries and in recent seasons has been a consistent performer. For all that he has been rewarded, with selection to tour New Zealand for the two test series.

Wijeykoon (21), Polonowita ( 37), Mubarak (36), Jayawardena (32), got in and got out. Only big scores prove a players worth as a top order batsman. Twenties and Thirties do not. Day three began with Sri Lanka on 211 for 5 wickets and a lead of 199. They could not capitalize. Only the sensible and quality batting of Bandara saved the day for them. It was a well played, mature innings.

The target of 284 set the stage for an even contest. Lunch was taken after the Sri Lankan innings. An hour later the visitors had got themselves into an enormous hole. At 22 for 5 wickets, with almost all of the top order gone it looked like "curtains" for them. Then some respectability as the score reached 103 for 6 wickets. Suddenly the game changed on its head with Matt Prior (104) and Graeme Swan (71) suddenly stroking the ball to all parts of Maitland Place. The earlier batsmen were made to look like novices. It was similar to a limited over game. They scored at seven, eight or more runs an over.

It looked like they were going to get through to another victory. Then, a reckless stroke by Swann against part time spinner Kandamby, gave the home team the breakthrough. Now England had failed to capitalize as the rest folded from 229 for 7 wickets, to be all out for 245 runs. They had batted on 46.5 overs! A four day game completed in three days!

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