|
Murali delays the inevitable England win |
May 28, 2006 (Scorecard)
England were made to work hard by Muttiah
Muralitharan as they strolled to a six-wicket
win on the fourth day of the Edgbaston Test
Match. Requiring just 78 to win, England lost
all its four wickets to Muralitharan and took
over 27 overs to achieve this small target.
Alastair Cook with his 34 not out defied any
further damage and along with his skipper Andrew
Flintoff saw England through to give a 1-0 lead
in the 3-Test Match Series.
Resuming at the overnight score of 194 for 5, Sri
Lanka looked to stretch the lead further with Vandort and Maharoof batting stubbornly.
Flintoff was the bowler who gave the
breakthrough in the 15th over of the day as
Maharoof did not have any answers to his nasty
short pitch delivery. It was the 2nd new ball
that did the trick for England this time around.
Liam Plunkett who did not bowl on the 3rd day’s
play due to a bad shoulder was fit to bowl today
and he struck twice in his 13th over removing
Vaas and Kulasekara in consecutive balls. Both
Vaas and Kulasekara were caught by Paul
Collingwood, who continued to have a great time with
his catching in this test match. Flintoff and
Plunkett then took a wicket each to end the Sri
Lankan innings at 231. Vandort was the last man
to fall, getting out for 105 as he was looking
to play a forcing shot on the backfoot to
Plunkett’s away going delivery.
England had a small target to get and their
innings started 25 minutes before the lunch
break. Muralitharan who was brought into the
attack in just the 4th over, got the
breakthrough in his 1st over itself trapping
Trescothick infront of the stumps with his
doosra. Strauss and Cook then batted well and
Murali was lucky in his 6th over to get the
wicket of Strauss, who was given out caught at
slip when the batsman had failed to make any
connection with the ball in his attempted sweep
shot by Aleem Dar. Murali then bowled two more
doosras to get the wickets of Pietersen and
Collingwood but they were just enough to delay
the inevitable England win. Pietersen may have
just made 13 in this innings but he had made a
murderous 142 out of the 295 first innings runs
that England made and for that he rightly got
the Man of the Match award. His innings had got
a significant lead for England and that was
crucial in the end as Sri Lanka despite making
231 in their 2nd essay ended up giving a small
target of 78. As far as Muralitharan in
concerned, he had taken his 15th ten wicket
haul! Trent Bridge, Nottingham will host the 3rd
and final Test Match and that match starts on
next Thursday.
Top of the Page |
