SWANN STRIKES LATE
Graeme Swann struck two crucial blows in the penultimate over yesterday, as Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene was left facing the prospect of having to fight another isolated battle to avoid his team losing the second test against England, at the P. Saravanamuttu Stadium.
Sri Lanka were 218 for 6 at the close of play, with a lead of 33.
With two overs left following an absorbing 88 overs of cricket, it seemed like Sri Lanka would end the day on a good footing with Jayawardene and Thilan Samaraweera frustrating the English bowlers, with a resolute 90run partnership.
Having taken the second new-ball 11 overs from stumps, Andrew Strauss called on Swann to bowl the penultimate over, and the spinner responded promptly picking up a wicket with his first ball as Samaraweera, on 47, backed away and chopped the ball, and though it missed the stumps clipped a bail on the way up.
He then bowled Suraj Randiv, who was sent in as night watchman, two balls later turning the tide in England’s favour.
The day began with the hosts with their backs against the wall with a deficit of 181. The overnight pair of Lahiru Thirimanne and Dhammika Prasad resumed Sri Lanka’s second innings resolutely, displaying semblances of the patience that helped the English reach a commanding first innings score.
The pair added 19 runs over 11 overs, before Thirimanne edged James Anderson behind for 8 – his third single digit score of the series, which will likely raise some questions about his immediate future in the Test team.
That brought in former captain Tillakaratne Dilshan who took on an uncharacteristically patient approach – coming under-fire for his over-aggressive in the longer form – which paid off, as he first put on 41 runs for the second wicket with the previous day’s night watchman Dhammika Prasad. The latter was more than handy with the bat, playing the aggressor in both partnerships he was involved in, scoring five boundaries in his knock of 34, before being caught at the deep square leg boundary, playing a poorly timed pull shot.
Underperforming star batsman Kumar Sangakkara, who was on an unflattering ‘King-pair’ (two ducks in a match), then joined Dilshan shortly before lunch, and looked a little edgy as the first few balls he faced from Jimmy Anderson barely missed the edge.
Dilshan was then controversially given out caught behind, 8.1 overs after the lunch break, as the drawbacks of the inept Decision Review System package made available for this series, were exposed. Swann appealed for caught behind which on-field umpire Bruce Oxenford adjudged as out. Dilshan promptly reviewed it and despite there being no discernible evidence of the bat hitting the ball, the decision was upheld on the basis that there was no conclusive evidence that the umpire was wrong, as per the rules for the use of the DRS.
Sangakkara, was lucky to have survived a leg-before appeal, on 18, which the English then reviewed, but he benefited from the margin of error in the DRS and remained not out. However, he failed to take advantage of that chance and contribute when his team needed it most. With the score on 125, he followed a Graeme Swann delivery that turned sharply away from him and feathered it to keeper Matt Prior, ending his 21-run partner- ship with Jayawardene. Sangakkara aggregated just 35 runs in the series in four innings, at an average of just 8.75 - his lowest for a series in his 108match Test career.
Jayawardene was then joined by Samaraweera, and the pair reprised their 125-run partnership from the first innings, before Swann’s late heroics.
Dilshan was however optimistic his team could win tomorrow and drew on one of England’s recent capitulations where they were bowled out for 72 in Abu Dhabi against Pakistan chasing 145, saying that 150 would be a defendable total.
"If we bat out the first session, there is a good chance we may win it," Dilshan said, adding, "If we can set a target of around 150, we believe we can win. It's not an easy wicket to bat on. It has turn and bounce and we have some very good spinners in our side."