STRAUSS CUTS
Skipper’s half-century answers critics and stops the batting rot
HE HAD done so much of the hard work and finally made an ordinary Sri Lanka attack look, well, ordinary, but Andrew Strauss could not quite go on to the century he and England so crave.
This was the captain in more commanding form than at any stage all winter, but just when it seemed he would reach the hundred that would have ended any suggestion that he is no longer the right man to take England forward, his favourite shot let him down.
Strauss and the man who will one day replace him as Test captain, Alastair Cook, had launched their reply to Sri Lanka’s 275 in a second Test England must win as if the penny had finally dropped after a winter of batting discontent.
There were no risks taken, no injudicious big shots and, most noticeably of all, precious few sweeps as they concentrated on accumulation without getting bogged down against spin in conditions they have singularly failed to master in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Galle.
Strauss had not reached the point where he was supping Arrack in Colombo’s last-chance saloon but this was potentially his most significant innings since the day in Napier when he scored 177 against New Zealand with the axe hovering over his Test career.
There has not been a single observer here calling for Strauss’s head but his run of one century in 48 Test innings, coupled with four successive defeats for his team, made the future of a 35-year- old captain a valid issue, however much he has achieved in the past. There has certainly not been a witchhunt, as Graeme Swann bizarrely claimed last night.
If England go on to win this Test, square the mini-series, and return home still as the No 1 ranked side in the world then total disaster on the mission to conquer their final frontier would just about have been averted.
Most importantly, Strauss could look forward to a summer against West Indies and South Africa without feeling that all of the hard work England put in to reach the summit of the game had gone to waste in one fell swoop against Pakistan and Sri Lanka. And, not least, without worrying that his job might be on the line. Much remains to be done before that scenario becomes reality, but with England on 154 for one at the close of day two, just 121 behind, normal service had, in part, been resumed for a side who have bowled like princes but batted like paupersall winter.
Not least for Strauss. He is not one to make any emotive gestures or scream ‘I told you so’ when proving doubters wrong but there was no disguising his pleasure when he moved to only his second half-century of the winter.
There were a couple of edges that fell just short of slip but, for the most part, he displayed that elusive blend of the correct tempo and the right shot selection for conditions that have unfathomably confounded England’s finest.
Then a batsman who was once so good at converting half-centuries into tons was gone for 61 as he attempted to cut the gentle off spin of Tillekeratne Dilshan and succeeded only in edging into the gloves of Prasanna Jayawardene.
The foundations, though, had been laid and England had the perfect men in Cook and Jonathan Trott, who showed how it should be done in a losing cause at Galle last week, to build on them.
Cook, the run- machine of Australia and when scoring 294 against India last summer, has not exactly been at the top of his game either and was another of the batsmen who owed his bowlers a significant stay at the crease after all their previously wasted endeavours.
Here Cook did what he does when he is at his best. Like Strauss, he had few alarms against the demon of Galle Rangana Herath — though he did offer a very sharp chance to Lahiru Thirimanne at short leg on 20 — nor against off- spinner Suraj Randiv, who took nine wickets in Sri Lanka’s last Test at the P Sara Oval.
Cook, after his 12th opening partnership in excess of a hundred with his captain, was still there on 77 at the close. And England were well placed to reach the score of 400-plus that they desperately need to feel confident of victory without having to face another nervous lastinnings run-chase. This was a terrific day for England. Their first task was to stop Sri Lanka’s tail wagging after the crucial wicket of Mahela Jayawardene on the first day had swung the match their way.
They did it expertly, the seamers initially stopping Angelo Mathews and company gaining any momentum and then Swann entering the attacwk to take three of the remaining four wickets to fall.
Sri Lanka added just 37 to their overnight score, Swann moving above Tony Lock to become the third most prolific England spinner, behind just Derek Underwood, who was here yesterday, and Jim Laker.
That is a notable achievement indeed for an off-spinner who came so close to becoming an unfulfilled talent in his ‘wasted’ years.
Swann had done his job after a mediocre first-day performance but day two was always going to be about Strauss. The captain then turned it into a positive one without quite enjoying the happy ending that would have completed it.
paul.newman@dailymail.co.uk