Charlie Austin
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1st ODI: Sri Lanka v England at Dambulla, 23 Mar 2001 Charlie Austin |
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Sri Lanka innings:
Pre-game: England innings: |
Sanath Jayasuriya had started the innings in sensational fashion, hitting ten runs from Andrew Caddick's first over and then going on to make 39 from just 35 balls. It looked like Sri Lanka were going to score the required runs at a canter, but Romesh Kaluwitharan, who had started quietly, drove loosely at an away swinger from Andrew Caddick and was caught behind for two.
Then, just after passing the fifty in the ninth over, Jayasuriya was unlucky to be adjudged leg-before wicket to Alan Mullally. The ball looked to be missing the batsman's leg stump. Mahela Jayawardene followed his captain back to the dressing room, as he edged a good delivery from Darren Gough and Kumar Sangakkara became the third batsmen to be caught behind when he pushed at a wide delivery from Andrew Caddick.
Since then Russel Arnold (8*) and Marvan Atapattu (19*), both of whom scored a pair in the Third Test Match, have steadied the innings. They looked circumspect early on, but have just started to hit the ball with greater confidence and appear to be edging Sri Lanka towards victory.
This was never likely to be a high-scoring affair and the consultant curator, Andy Atkinson from Essex, should not be blamed for the lack of runs today. It normally takes many months to prepare a true pitch, but he was given just eight weeks. In fact the wicket, though painfully slow and slightly variable in pace, exceeded the expectations of many and England 's low total was primarily the result of some excellent bowling and fine fielding by the eager Sri Lankans.
Nevertheless a target of 144 will be no pushover and Sri Lanka's batsmen, who are short of confidence anyway, will still need to bat well, especially if the wicket starts to deteriorate this afternoon.
Although Nuwan Zoysa had plucked out two early wickets, it was the Sri Lankan spinners who throttled the England innings. Kumar Dharmasena and Russel Arnold stifled the runs early on, but Muttiah Muralitharan was the pick of the bowlers. He took four wickets for 29 runs and dismissed the rump of the English middle order in his crucial first spell (7-1-20-3).
Michael Vaughan, making his ODI debut, was the first of Muralitharan's wickets as he tried to sweep the off spinner, but dragged his back foot out of the crease and was smartly stumped by the recalled Romesh Kaluwitharan. Vaughan had scored nine runs and England were 92 for four.
Andrew Flintoff was also stumped as he tried to use his feet in Muralitharan 's next over and Craig White was caught at slip first ball, as he was deceived by Muralitharan's arm ball. England had collapsed to 97 for six.
Ashley Giles added 16 runs with Graham Thorpe, who held the innings together with an undefeated 62 off 107 balls, but was then run out by a direct hit from Mahela Jayawardene. Andrew Caddick was brilliantly caught by a leaping Muralitharan for a duck, before the last two wickets yielded a potentially valuable 25 runs.
Jayasuriya then recalled his premier bowlers back into the attack. Chaminda Vaas had Darren Gough caught at the wicket and Muralitharan trapped Alan Mullally leg-before wicket.
England's openers, Alec Stewart and Marcus Trescothick, started the innings positively as the new ball came on to the bat and added 31 runs for the first wicket. Stewart was the most aggressive of the two, as he stroked four boundaries, including one lofted drive for six off Nuwan Zoysa in the sixth over of the innings.
Zoysa, however, had the last laugh as he nipped a ball back through the defences of Stewart in his next over to bowl him for 21. Zoysa struck again in his fifth over as Graeme Hick mistimed an on drive and was caught by Kumar Dharmasena at mid on having made just two. England were 35 for two.
Sri Lanka then turned to the off spin of Russel Arnold and Kumar Dharmasena and Graham Thorpe and Trescothick found it difficult to increase the momentum of the innings with five, sometimes six, men fielding inside the inner circle. Nevertheless, the pair added 40 runs for the third wicket in 81 balls.
Russel Arnold took Sri Lanka's third wicket of the innings in the 24th over of the innings, as Trescothick tried to work an off spinner to leg and was bowled for 26.
Michael Vaughan, making his One-Day International debut in this game, then came to the wicket. He appeared lucky to survive an appeal for a catch behind of Muttiah Muralitharan when still on nought.
England opted to leave out Mark Ealham in the morning, ending an astonishing 43 successive One-Day International appearances for the Kent all rounder. They have plumped instead for a four-pronged pace attack in the belief that the faster bowlers will be best able to exploit expected variations in bounce on a wicket that has been prepared from scratch in an astonishing eight weeks. Ashley Giles is the only spinner.
As expected a place was found for Michael Vaughan, who scored an impressive 97 in England's only warm-up game. He plays ahead of Nick Knight and is expected to bat number six.
Sri Lanka have opted for seven batsmen, replacing Tillakaratne Dilshan with Indika de Saram, two pace bowlers, Chaminda Vaas and Nuwan Zoysa, and two spinners, Kumar Dharmasena and Muttiah Muralitharan.
© CricInfo
Date-stamped : 23 Mar2001 - 18:24