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Jayasuriya’s all round show
enables Lanka to crush England |
June 20, 2006 (Click to see the
Scorecard)
The near 37-year-old Sanath Jayasuriya was
almost forgotten by Sri Lankan Selectors few
months back. But the veteran has hit back at his
critics hard by scoring his 20th ODI hundred and
if that wasn’t enough he picked up three wickets
to enable Sri Lanka to a 46-run win in the 2nd
ODI at The Oval. It was the fourth time in a row
that the Lankans have come over the top of
England ever since their morale boosting win in
the 3rd Test Match. Sri Lanka put on a much
improved show with the bat today and England
continued to play poor cricket.
The Sri Lankan Innings
Sri Lanka once again got to bat first but this
time it was after winning the toss. It was a
good batting track and the margin of error for
the bowlers looked very thin. Last match
centurion Upul Tharanga and Sanath Jayasuriya
gave a decent opening stand but the runs were
hard to come by as Steve Harmison suffocated the
strokeplay with his pace and steep bounce. Sri
Lanka had lost its first wicket in the form of
Tharanga but not before the pair had added up 34
runs on the board after seeing off the new ball
threat for 9 overs. Harmison had got the extra
bounce and the away movement to extract the edge
off Tharanga. The Sri Lankan Skipper Mahela
Jayawardene came in and he looked positive right
from the word go. After England had taken the
2nd Powerplay, both the batsmen launched an
assault on the bowling by moving away from their
stumps to smash few boundaries over the
infielders. Sri Lanka raced to 78 for 1 after
the end of the 15th over and Strauss was once
again forced to hold back the 3rd powerplay.
It was consolidation time for both Jayasuriya
and Jayawardene which they did well. Collingwood
did not have the best of starts with the ball
and that allowed the runs to come at a fair
clip. England took the 3rd powerplay in the 22nd
over and the onslaught from both the batsmen was
back. This time the two batsmen were much more
severe as they had smashed 49 runs in the 5
powerplay overs. Sajid Mahmood at this stage had
dreadful figures of 5-0-59-0! Both the batsmen
were keen on staying for a long time to bat
England out of the match. However the massive
161 runs partnership had ended through a mix up
between the two batsmen with Jayawardene run out
at the non striker’s end after making a 62-ball
66 which was studded with 5 fours and a stunning
pick up shot for six off Mahmood. Sangakkara was
the best batsman for SL who could carry on from
where Jayawardene had left and the wicket keeper
batsman started to free his arms very soon. One
of his shots included a glorious step out and
lofted drive for a six off Jamie Dalrymple’s off
breaks. Jayasuriya soon reached his 20th ODI
hundred which took him just 122 balls and he had
added up few more runs before getting
brilliantly caught at the covers boundary by
Bresnan off Harmison for 122. Jayasuriya might
have gone and England might have got plenty of
wickets in the slog overs but there was no
stopping for the Lankans in putting up an
intimidating total of 319/8 on the board.
Harmsion despite all the onslaughts from the
Lankans held his head high with figures of 3/31
in his 10. A total contrast to this was Sajid
Mahmood who was taken for 80 runs in his 7!
The English Chase
England were off to a poor start losing its
openers in the first 10 overs. Trescothick, the
man in form was the first one to go out to a
slashing drive off Malinga and Strauss followed
him after few overs by miscuing a lofted shot
off Maharoof. Pietersen was due for a big score
and he got good support from the steady Ian
Bell. Sri Lanka decided to get rid of their 2nd
and 3rd Powerplays on trot after the first ten
overs. Pietersen was staying there and he was
doing his bit to keep England’s hopes alive.
Bell was the next man to go mistiming his pull
shot off Malinga. Pietersen could continue his
fireworks with his new partner Collingwood who
fitted into his role with perfection. But
England’s hopes soon vanished after Pietersen
was cleaned up by Jayasuriya after the big man
moved away from his stumps to go for an almighty
slog over mid wicket. Pietersen fell after
making a 76-ball 73 and he would regret his
mistake of not covering his stumps with his
frontpad while going for that slog sweep.
England at this stage were at 176 for 4 with
still 144 to get in a little over 18 overs which
was a Herculean task.
Sanath Jayasuriya in the 40th over had removed
Paul Collingwood as the batsman came down the
track in desperation to play a big shot over mid
wicket. But the cunning Jayasuriya had adjusted
well by bowling it flatter to deceive the
batsman in the air to disturb his stumps.
Collingwood fell for 56 and with that England
were almost out of the match although Jamie
Dalrymple entertained the crowd with his 37
which had one big six over mid wicket off Murali.
England had lost wickets in a hurry soon and the
end was inevitable and it came in just the 47th
over.
There was absolutely no one who had the chance
of winning the Man of the Match award other than
Sanath Jayasuriya. England will have to have a
serious look at their bowling attack, they will
have to call up for some experienced guys rather
than sticking to the rookies and watch them get
brutalized. Sri Lanka would try to bring back
Dilhara Fernando into the playing XI for the
third match and today he had to miss out due to
ankle injury. The third One Dayer is on the 24th
at Chester-le-Street.
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