An Englishman in Sri Lanka (part 7)

After the third and final day of cricket at the SSC last week, Nasser Hussain said: "Unbelievable. We turn up this morning and what a day we had. We didn't quite expect that to happen."

He was not the only person who didn't expect an England victory on the Saturday. The thousands of English spectators were definitely not expecting to celebrate a Test and series victory that Saturday evening.

A normal Saturday evening usually revolves around trying to find a place to watch the Premiership football games that are broadcast live at 9pm Sri Lankan time. Galle and Kandy had been unhappy hunting grounds with no satellite television available and so Colombo was eagerly awaited. We also had the extra bonus of it being St Patrick's Day and so an exorbitantly priced pint of Guinness from the only Irish Pub, Clancy's, was in the reckoning.

Play didn't begin until 11am as condensation from the covers was found on the wicket. The news was greeted by a few choice mutterings from the English fans. What followed was probably the most exhilarating, exhausting and unbelievable cricket that I have watched. Hardly a minute went by without something happening that needed serious attention from the stands.

England never got the 300 that we had all hoped for, but then in our wildest dreams we could never have expected to bowl out a Sri Lankan team for 81 and then wrap up a victory that evening. Apart from when Alec Stewart fell for a duck at 43/4 (there were some small panics), there was a general feeling that we would chase the small total without a problem, especially with one Graham Thorpe in bat.

The final run came off the bat of Ashley Giles and was met by a pitch invasion. The stewards were never going to stop some determined English fans. Two fans even made it to the wicket and returned with stumps as mementos (one in fact was the very expensive stump-cam).

The fans swarmed around the prize-ceremony after the team had done a mini lap of honour to acknowledge the majority English crowd (most of the Sri Lankans had quietly left). The cheering and celebrations continued as the Barmy Army sung their many songs to the English balcony and players threw out their caps and sweaty shirts to the fans below.

The songs could be heard well into the Colombo night at various drinking establishments around the city. The night began in the simple surroundings of the Ex-Serviceman's Institute with its plastic chairs and bemused locals. It ended in the rather more salubrious comforts of the Echelon Pub in the Hilton where we were treated to a singing performance by the man-of-the-series, Darren Gough.

The expectation and confidence of English fans has been rising over these past 12 months as England's performances have steadily improved. The Test victory in the fading light of Karachi came as a bit of surprise, but England's defeat of Sri Lanka at the SSC was not unexpected - people were confident. We can now sing with some degree of confidence: Bring on the Aussies.