FIREMAN SAM
Magnificent Curran clobbers bowlers in thrilling England rescue act. He’s...
It says everything about the character and audacity of sam Curran that he has hit a six to reach all of the three half-centuries he has already made in his short test career.
He did it twice in his man-of-theseries introduction against India and he did it again here yesterday during a last-wicket stand with Jimmy anderson that looked to have turned this second test dramatically England’s way.
Nobody else in test history has done that, but then few can have made such an immediate impression once he had become one of new national selector Ed smith’s bold, imaginative picks early last summer.
What a start Curran has made in test cricket and what a performance this was towards the end of an absorbing first day at the Pallekele stadium on the sort of sharply turning pitch that so often provides compelling cricket.
It appeared sri Lanka’s stated policy of trying to trap England on a spinning minefield to claw their way back into this series had paid off once Jos Buttler became the seventh man to fall with just 171 on the board.
But Curran, initially with the help of adil Rashid and then in a partnership of 60 with his very senior partner anderson, changed all that with arguably his most mature display yet.
Curran had become a little bogged down when he inched along to just 16 off his first 65 balls and was in danger of running out of partners before he had the opportunity to go on the attack.
It was then England enjoyed the piece of good fortune that could be the most significant moment of this test, after anderson was given out lbw to his first ball from the officially suspect spin of akila Dananjaya.
anderson called for a review only because England had one left, allowing the earlier decision of Ben Foakes not to challenge a dismissal that was to prove erroneous to ultimately work in England’s favour.
the usually excellent umpire Marais Erasmus was found to have erred, with the ball hitting England’s last man outside the line, and anderson was reprieved again from the next ball when Niroshan Dickwella dropped an edge.
How England, in the shape of Curran, made sri Lanka pay and how the home side helped the 20-year- old, too, with stand-in captain suranga Lakmal repeatedly allowing him to farm the strike with dozy field placings.
Not that Curran needed help. six times he cleared the ropes as he propelled his score to 64 off 119 balls and England to 285, going to 50 off Dananjaya, whose action will be investigated next week.
Curran was almost stumped by Dickwella on 31, was dropped at long on by Malinda Pushpakumara on 53 and then had technology to thank for proving that another big hit had bounced just before it was grasped by angelo Mathews.
yet that should take nothing away from a man who is already looking too low at eight in an England order jam- packed with all- rounders and still searching for specialists in the top three. It is not stretching a point to say Curran could easily be promoted to three as Ben stokes was yesterday.
He batted brilliantly and the Barmy army toasted their new hero with regular renditions of their sam Curran song to the tune of Culture Club’s Karma Chameleon.
Curran was critical of sri Lanka’s tactics as they kept giving him an easy single at the end of each over to get back on strike in his stand with anderson. asked if he was surprised by Lakmal’s approach, Curran replied: ‘a little bit. I gave myself a bit more of a chance to take a few more balls, because I felt there was an easier option to get a single towards the end, when they weren’t really bringing in the field. Me and Jimmy were pretty happy to take the over as deep as possible and getting the extra single.
‘you’ve got to trust all the batters. they’re all capable of hanging around and they’ve trained hard against spin in the nets. Jimmy hung around and we had great fun. you saw how it spun for us in the last few overs, so getting close to 300 was a massive positive.’
the cricket was gripping earlier even though there was a party atmosphere among the 5,000 England fans, many of them having experienced difficulties with hotel double bookings.
they had seen Keaton Jennings falling to Lakmal, the one seamer on show, a display of promise from Rory Burns and some signs that stokes could have a future at three if he can somehow manage his bulging workload.
Foakes was naive in walking off when given out caught at slip — replays showed his sweep did not connect with the ball — but then came a brilliant display of counterattacking from Buttler. He swept and reverse swept with great skill before falling to the one misjudged reverse he offered for 63 off 67 balls, taking his average since returning to the test side to a tad under 49.
England captain Joe Root was even more pleased when Jack Leach bowled Kaushal silva with a beauty as sri Lanka struggled to 26 for one by the close.
advantage England after day one in their search for only their second series win in sri Lanka — mainly thanks to Curran, the young superstar in the making.