They made thirty five thousand cricket mad Sri Lankan fans dance inside the stadium. At the same time they set another twenty million Sri Lankans dancing in the streets with one of the most dominant batting displays in World Cup history.
Sri Lanka scored 232 for no loss in just 39.3 overs in reply to the English total of 229 for 6 in their allotted 50 overs. Yes, the Lankan openers Upul Tharanga and T.M. Dilshan scored centuries – 102 and 108 not out respectively to dump the rag-a-tag Englishmen by ten wickets at the R. Premadasa Stadium in their 2011 World Cup quarter-final and qualified for the semi-final on Tuesday against New Zealand at the same venue.
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Upul Taranga waves his bat to the crowd after reaching his century
Pix by Sanka Vidanagama |
The wicket which looked quite unexplainable when the Englishmen were occupying it seemed sans any terror while the Lankans were on it. Both Tharanga and Dilshan kept pace with shot to shot and treated the English attack with utter disdain most of the time. They found the space to play their shots and executed them at their own will.
In the latter stages both batsmen hampered with the heat exhaustion, were down in strength, but were never far away from an attacking stroke.
Tharanga’s knock of 102 not out came in 122 balls with a six and twelve fours while Dilshan’s unbeaten knock came in 115 balls with two sixes and ten fours.
Looking to keep a pace of 4.58 runs per over, the Lankan opening pair of Upul Tharanga and T.M. Dilshan began their business sweetly thwarting the potency of the English pace-spin new ball combination of Tim Bresnan and Graeme Swann.
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| Man of the match Tilakaratne Dilshan celebrates his century |
Especially Tharanga who has a huge appetite for English bowling was soon in stride lofting Swann for a six at the initial stages. Then Dilshan also joined the party and the Lankan pair posted their fifth association of over 50 runs for the 2011 Cricket World Cup, which came in just 54 balls.
Then the pair raced to the to their second century stand for the series in 114 balls. They made a huge 282 runs against Zimbabwe in their preliminary round game.
Though the pair danced their fox trot in harmony, it was Dilshan who made his half century which came in 57 balls. Soon after, Tharanga also completed his half century which came in 70 balls. The pair had equal credentials in scoring five fours and a six in their fifties.
Earlier, Andrew Strauss won the toss and called for batting with an unchanged team that helped him to beat the Windies in their last league game which opened the door for them into the quarters.
Though there was overnight and morning rain in the city of Colombo, it did not hamper the covered R. Premadasa Stadium and the game got off to the scheduled 2.30 start.
Sri Lanka came into the game with three spinners in Muttiah Muralitharan, Ajantha Mendis and Rangana Herat at the expense of seamer Nuwan Kulasekera. Though the Lankan spinners did manage to keep a close tab on the scoring rate, the purchase off the wicket to them was not very encouraging. Now it will be interesting to see how the English bowlers who are minus most of their seniors are going to tackle the dew ridden wet ball and the Lankan batsmen.
Sri Lanka began their attack with the pace-spin combination of Lasith Malinga and T.M. Dilshan. While Malinga began with two non furious initial overs, Dilshan pegged in wicket-to-wicket and had Strauss in all kinds of problems until he succumbed in the last ball of the seventh over for five.
Six balls later it was the turn of the other surviving opener Ian Bell – the more confident of the two openers – to walk back when he was picked up at short mid wicket by Thilan Samaraweera off Angelo Mathews.
Dilshan finished his first spell with impressive figures of 4-1-9-1.
After the early demise of the English openers, the second in pair of Jonathan Trott and Ravi Bopara reluctantly dug into the intense Lankan spin attack, but survived the turbulence of views, reviews and near run outs to post the first 50 run stand of the game.
Then the batsmen gradually begun to sink their teeth into the potent looking Lankan attack till Muralitharan in his fifth over trapped Bopara in front and the batsman walked back after a look at the review screen for 31. Bopara and Trott added 64 runs for the third wicket.
Scoreboard
England innings
AJ Strauss* b Dilshan 5
Attempts to pull, missed it and bowled
IR Bell c Samaraweera b Mathews 25
Tried to force it through the leg side but didn't keep it down
IJL Trott c Jayawardene b Muralitharan 86
Tried to clear the rope and top edged to deep square
RS Bopara lbw b Muralitharan 31
Attempts to sweep a full length delivery missed it, trapped lbw
EJG Morgan c Mathews b Malinga 50
Tried to go over the covers but lofts it to the cover fielder
GP Swann lbw b Mendis 0
Goes for the reverse slog-sweep and trapped lbw
MJ Prior not out 22
LJ Wright not out 1
Extras (lb 3, w 6) 9
Total (6 wickets; 50 overs) 229
Fall of wickets: 1-29 (Strauss, 7.6 ov), 2-31 (Bell, 8.6 ov), 3-95 (Bopara, 26.6 ov), 4-186 (Morgan, 42.6 ov), 5-186 (Swann, 43.1 ov), 6-212 (Trott, 48.3 ov)
Bowling: SL Malinga 10-0 46 1(2w), TM Dilshan 6-1-25-1, AD Mathews 5-0-20-1, HMRKB Herath 10-1-47-0, BAW Mendis 10-0-34-1, M Muralitharan 9-0-54-2 (1w)
Sri Lanka innings (target: 230 runs from 50 overs)
WU Tharanga not out 102
TM Dilshan not out 108
Extras (b 9, lb 6, w 6) 21
Total (0 wickets; 39.3 overs) 231
Bowling : TT Bresnan 8-1-40-0, GP Swann 9-0-61-0 (2w), CT Tremlett 7.3-0-38-0 (1w), RS Bopara 5-1-22-0 JC Tredwell 6-0-38-0, LJ Wright 4-0-17-0 (1w) |
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