England secure early tour victory
In front of a sprinkling of English spectators being cooled by circular fans in the pavilion and five contented ponies chewing on a grass bank, England completed their first victory of the tour at P
Charile Austin
11-Feb-2001
In front of a sprinkling of English spectators being cooled by circular fans
in the pavilion and five contented ponies chewing on a grass bank, England
completed their first victory of the tour at P. Saravanamuttu Oval today.
They defeated a Sri Lanka board President's XI, which contained four players
with Test experience, by 165 runs and will travel south to the coastal town
of Matara tomorrow satisfied with their first 10 days in Sri Lanka.
They will be given extra cheer by the news from New Zealand that Sri Lanka's
master off spinner, Muttiah Muralitharan, has aggravated the groin injury
that he sustained during Sri Lanka's ill-fated tour of South Africa. The
true extent of the injury is as yet unclear. The fact that it is a
recurrence of an earlier injury though is bound to be of great concern to
the Sri Lankan management.
Hussain was delighted with his team's performance: "I was very pleased with
the team. We bowled well and created a lot of chances." Nevertheless, he
warned that the team would have improve if they are to succeed in the Test
series: "We beat a decent side today, but in ten days' time the side we play
is going to be a lot better. We saw how well that Dilshan and Tillakaratne
played here and they can't even get in the national team. Everybody has got
some work to do."
The Sri Lankan board President's XI resisted the English bowlers for 63
overs today, but were always unlikely to bat out the day having lost three
wickets last night. They started the morning well though as the impressive
Tillakaratne Dilshan followed his sparkling knock in the first innings with a
cameo 45 from 78 balls in the second.
In contrast to his dour defence last night as Darren Gough pounded up to the
wicket under the cool evening sun, he began like a man determined to win the
match in time for an afternoon dip in the Indian Ocean. When Giles was
introduced into the attack after a five-over opening burst from Andy
Caddick, Dilshan danced down the wicket and essayed him over long off for
six and then drove powerfully through the off side for four.
However, Dilshan failed to temper his aggression and he skimmed a low catch
to Michael Atherton at short extra cover in the 16th over of the day.
England breathed a sigh of relief and Ashley Giles frustrated Chamara Silva
into lofting a catch to Andrew Caddick at mid on for a duck. The President's
XI were 78 for five.
An embarrassing slump in front of the national selectors was then avoided by
Hashan Tillakaratne who batted 199 minutes for his 43 runs and survived
numerous appeals from a frustrated fielding side.
Indeed, the frequency of appeals was a disappointing feature of the match.
On two occasions today the England players prematurely commenced a
congratulatory huddle in the middle of the wicket only to be denied by the
umpires. England looked to have learned from the rowdy and speculative
appealing of the opposition in the first two games and adopted an "if you
can't beat them join them attitude".
"There was a lot of appealing in the game by both sides as there is likely
to be with the spinners on and men around the bat," Hussain said
afterwards. "You have to play the percentages, but not over-appeal.
Sometimes the umpires agreed with us and sometimes they didn't, but we will
keep appealing."
Prassana Jayawardene joined Hashan Tillakaratne at the crease and the pair
added 41 runs for the sixth wicket. Jayawardene would have dearly loved some
runs in front of the selectors, who are reluctant to select a wicket-keeper
unless he is able to score a Test century. His opportunity to impress,
however, was cut short by Darren Gough who mixed up his bowling well and was
rewarded when he induced an edge that was snapped up by Atherton low
down to his right at first slip.
Seven overs later the Sri Lankan resistance was effectively ended when
Tillakaratne gloved a sweep and was caught by Nasser Hussain at leg slip to
leave the President's XI on 128 for seven. Puspakumara was then padded
Michael Vaughan a catch at silly point to give Ashley Giles his fourth
wicket and Michael Vaughan mopped up, like he did in the first innings, with
two wickets from 3.2 overs.
The England team departs for Galle tomorrow where they will train on Tuesday
afternoon and Wednesday. Then, on Thursday, they start their last practice
game before the First Test Match.
The Sri Lankan team meanwhile returns home from New Zealand tomorrow as the
Sri Lankan selectors deliberate over the final squad for the First Test
Match in Galle, which commences in 11 days' time. Assuming that Muralitharan
is fit, then their primary concerns will be identifying the best spinner to
partner him and whether to include seven batsmen at the expense of a top
class wicket-keeper.