SRI LANKA STIR AT LAST
England finally meet some resistance as captain Mathews helps tourists dig in
It HAS taken the best part of two tests but a game of cricket finally broke out at Durham yesterday as Sri Lanka belatedly stood up to an England attack that has overwhelmed and outclassed them.
England, barring a cricketing miracle or two days of rain, will still win this second test and with it the Investec series but they were at last made to work hard yesterday by a Sri Lankan side who regained a little of their lost pride.
Sri Lanka were pathetic in crashing to 91 for eight on Saturday in reply to England’s mammoth 489 for nine declared and another three-day finish looked inevitable when they quickly lost their last two wickets to again follow on.
Yet a nation famous for their competitive cricketing spirit climbed off the canvas to land a couple of glancing blows on England on their way to 309 for five by the close, still 88 behind but alive and just about kicking.
the third day began with animated talks on the Sri Lankan balcony between coach Graham Ford, one of the best in the business, captain Angelo Mathews and chairman of selectors Sanath Jayasuriya.
Whatever was said at least had some sort of galvanising effect, not least in the form of Mathews who, with an average nudging 50, is the one world- class batsman in this inexperienced Sri Lankan side.
It was Mathews who was the inspiration behind Sri Lanka’s famous win at Headingley two years ago with a match-winning 160 and now, after enduring a shambolic day on Saturday, he reminded England of his ability. Not that Mathews’s 80, only ended by a beauty from Jimmy Anderson and a 16th catch in the series for Jonny Bairstow, was flawless.
He could easily have departed without scoring and sparked off another Sri Lankan collapse. Joe Root was unsure whether an edge off Anderson had reached him at second slip so umpire Aleem Dar, who has had an outstanding match, gave not out as his ‘soft’ decision before calling on tV official Rod tucker for confirmation.
that meant the odds were always against tucker overturning it, particularly with the unsatisfactory way television pictures foreshorten the images. Mathews may have been out but the doubt understandably went with the batsman, much to the annoyance of Root, who looked furious.
then Bairstow (below), whose hard work on his keeping has led to much improved performances, made his one mistake with the gloves when he missed a stumping off Moeen Ali with Mathews on 36.
Otherwise, England could not really be faulted on the way they bowled on a slow Chester-le-Street pitch and with barely any swing in the air on a cold day that again showed the folly of playing test cricket in the north in May.
Anderson, back to his very best after a below-par tour of South Africa, produced another pearler of a delivery to send back the rising star of Sri Lanka’s batting, Kusal Mendis, while Moeen bowled Lahiru thirimanne with a beauty.
But for once wickets did not come easily for an England attack who had dismissed Sri Lanka for a combined score of 311 in just 115.4 overs in their first three innings of what before now has been a totally one-sided match-up.
If they are to again become the best test team in the world Alastair Cook and his side need to beat both Sri Lanka and Pakistan emphatically this summer but it will not harm them to have had to battle hard for once on a rare long day in the field.
the one worry for England was a curiously lacklustre display from Steven Finn, who has struggled for rhythm and fluency for much of the first two tests and at one point yesterday was barely reaching 80 miles per hour. Only when Finn sledged and then dismissed Kaushal Silva, who had been a busy presence at the top of the Sri Lankan order, was Finn anything like the strike bowler England desperately want him to be. When Matthews became the fifth Sri Lankan to fall, another threeday finish was still very much on but England tired in the final session and Dinesh Chandimal and Milinda Siriwardana ensured there were no further alarms. If the sixth-wicket pair, who have so far added 87 in some style, can get through the second new ball today, Sri Lanka could yet make England bat again but they have a long tail and Cook will still be confident of wrapping things up quickly. At least there will be some Bank Holiday cricket for a Durham crowd who were again down on numbers to 8,824 yesterday after a near-capacity crowd watched the eventful second day. What these matches have proved is that the ECB should not start off earlyseason series with back to back tests in the north against mediocre opposition if they want to protect the primacy of the long game.
It has not helped that Lord’s, who usually open the summer, asked for their test to be the third in this series because of rebuilding work but Sri Lanka, at least until yesterday, have looked totally out of their depth in alien conditions.
Sri Lanka went a long way towards finally finding their feet yesterday but, unless there is a twist in the tail today and they extend their resistance beyond tea, their acclimatisation has come too late to ensure a competitive series.
And, even though England cannot be faulted for their ruthless approach towards trying to earn a 3-0 series victory, ultimately that is not good for test cricket’s hopes of keeping the rise of twenty20 at bay.