Sports - Fooled by Sussex

Sri Lanka marched into the second test match against England brimming with confidence after their marathon second innings batting effort at Lord’s and the huge 521 for 5 wickets declared against the average bowling attack of Sussex C.C.C. within two hours and twenty six overs Mahela Jayawardena’s team had fallen flat on their faces – 65 for 6 wickets.

England is one country where playing according to the condition and state of the pitch is an absolute necessity. It is more so when playing during the months of May and June – late spring, early summer. Sri Lanka has Tom Moody as their coach and he is hugely experienced in this area. He has many years of playing and managing county cricket as a major qualification on his CV. He also has in the ranks Chaminda Vaas, Muttiah Muralitharan, Malinga Bandara and now Sanath Jayasuriya who have played county cricket. They must all know and must be able to share their knowledge and their combined efforts must filter to the rest of the team.

It was not so on Thursday morning and afternoon, at Edgebaston. They played into the hands of the England pace quartet. Give credit to Hoggard, Flintoff, Plunket and Mahmood. All four of them pitched the ball upto the bat on the correct length and extracted just enough movement to induce outside edges. Seven out of ten fell to catches held by the wicket keeper and slips. Unlike in the previous test match, they held onto them all. The wickets were shared and each bowler deserved what they got for their efforts.

The Sri Lankan batsmen continued playing in the manner they played at Lord’s and Hove. High back lifts of the bat, playing away from the front pad, wristy pushes – all strokes played on sub continent pitches or good easy paced pitch. Add to the bargain they had to contend with some very good deliveries too. The end result was a collapse in the matter of two sessions.

Only one player played an innings where he adapted to the conditions and situation of the game in experienced Chaminda Vaas. His methods convinced the viewer that here is a batsman who knows what he is doing. His method was: play with a low back lift on the bat unless attack, play the ball as close to the pads as possible, negating seam movement, drive with care relying more on timing and be satisfied with two’s and three’s off the half volleys, leave as many deliveries outside the off stump and wait patiently to accumulate runs. Seaming English conditions are such that you can never drop your guard. Endless concentration throughout an innings is a must. A batsman can never take for granted that he could take chances after batting for a short while. T.M. Dilshan was an example. He did the hard work, got into the twenties, then tried to smash a flowing drive only to send a thick outside edge into the slip cordon.

It is also important to remember that in these conditions batsmen need to stay balanced and time the ball rather than try to belt it. English grounds are also smaller in size generally. Drainage on all test and county grounds are excellent, they are well manicured, so you do get value for well directed hits. Just don’t be greedy to hit boundaries!

Should Mahela Jayawardena have batted first? In my opinion, no! The one factor for consideration was the ball spinning as the game progressed and Muralitharan becoming very effective. Then, when the team gets all out for 141 runs, that theory goes out of the window! It would have been better to opt to bat during the best time for batting – from midway of days two to day four or further.

A good first innings score is the foundation required to win a test match or for that matter any long game. Fail in that, then you have to keep chasing behind the opposition and do all the running. The ending at Lord’s was good, Hove and Sussex even better, but all that fooled the Sri Lankan’s on day one at Edgebaston.