Dilhara salvages Lankan pride

By M. Shamil Amit

Chamara Silva proved his worth once again Pic by Ranjith Perera

A career best figures of 6 for 27 by fast bowler Dilhara Fernando took the sparkle off England’s series win as he guided his side to a comfortable 107 run win in the fifth and final match at the at the R. Premadasa Stadium yesterday.

Dilhara was in terrific form as he had the England side chasing a modest target of 212 for victory in tatters. His introduction to the attack in the eighth over of the England innings sparked off a major collapse after Chaminda Vaas began the rot by dismissing Phil Mustard in the fourth ball of his second over and the third of the innings.

Dilhara scalped up three of the first five wickets to fall. They were the wickets of opener Alastair Cook, Ian Bell and skipper Paul Collongwood which put England on the defensive. He followed it up taking the sixth, seventh and eighth wickets to fall which included Owais Shah, Stuart Broad and Ryan Sidebottom to have England reeling on 82 for 8 in the 22nd over almost driving the nail on the coffin. Lasith Malinga who went wicketless in his first spell came back to join the party by capturing the wickets of James Anderson and Monty Panesar as the visitors folded up for just 104 runs off 29.1 overs.

Dilhara’s earlier best was 4 for 24. This time his six wicket haul earned him the man of the match award.

Yesterday’s Lankan hero seems to have been bowling a maiden over late on Friday while attending his company awards night at the Sri Lanka Trade and Exhibition Centre. (Pic by Ranjith Perera)

Earlier in day Sri Lanka skipper Mahela Jayawardena winning the toss left out out-of-form Upul Tharanga giving allrounder Dilruwan Perera a chance to prove his worth. The .debutant grabbed the opportunity and proved a useful partner to the Sanath Jayasuriya putting on 45 runs in six overs.

The first wicket fell after that breezy six over stand, Lankan wickets fell at regular intervals. The only Lankan batsman who came up with a noteworthy performance was young Chamara Silva who scored 73 off 109 balls with nine fours. Skipper Mahela Jayawardena had his second ‘duck-in-a-row’ when he was out in the third ball he faced.

At one point when Sangakkara and Chamara Silva were at the crease it looked as if it was going to be a repeat performance of their century stand on thurdsay. But, it was not to be as Sangakkara going in for a sweep against the part time off spinner Owais Shah was bowled round his legsfor 26. Then T. M. Dilshan (9), Jehan Mubarak (6) and Kaushalya Lokuarachch (0) perished without any useful contributions.

At the dying stages of the Lankan innings Chamara found two partners in Chaminda Vaas (15)and Dilhara Fernando (12) to move the score from a bleak 159 for 7 to a score of 211 which finally proved to be quite adequate to win the match but not the series.