|
Murali spins Sri Lanka to a
crushing 134-runs win |
June 05, 2006 (Link to
Scorecard)
 The
Sri Lankan Magician Muttiah Muralitharan spun
his side to a 134 runs win over England in the
3rd Test Match at Trent Bridge. Muralitharan won
the match single handedly by taking 8 wickets in
the 2nd innings as England collapsed from 84 for
no loss to 190 all out! It was Muralitharan’s
doosras that bamboozled the English batsmen as
they succumbed to the vultures breathing around
their neck at short leg and silly point. England
were set a challenging target of 325 with plenty
of time left and they fell apart to
Muralitharan’s 30 overs spell. The Spin King had
also taken 3 wickets in England’s first innings.
It was Murali’s 16th ten wicket haul in a career
of 106 Tests! Murali ended what could be his
last Test Match in England with 635 Tests
wickets. Muttiah Muralitharan ended up taking as
many as 24 English wickets to fall in this
3-Tests Series. He was rightly awarded the Man
of the Match award but he was forced to share
the Man of the Series award with the big hitting
Kevin Pietersen. Another performer in this match
has been the left arm spinner Monty Panesar who
took is first 5-wicket haul.
Day 1 : England lose two wickets after
bundling out Lanka for 231
Sri Lanka won the toss and they chose to bat
first at Trent Bridge, Nottingham and their
start was bad as usual. England’s Debutant pacer
Jon Lewis got his first test wicket in just the
3rd ball of his career as he cleaned up the left
hander Michael Vandort with a sharp inswinger.
Sri Lanka’s innings was then repaired by
Tharanga and Sangakkara who put on 82 runs.
England got into the wicket taking act soon with
Fllintoff taking three quick wickets. Sri Lanka
could never recover from the middle order
collapse and they were bowled out in just over
66 overs! Sri Lanka could atleast get to 231 and
it was due to the fighting partnerships for the
9th and the 10th wicket. Chaminda Vaas top
scored with an unbeaten 38. For England, Jon
Lewis and Andrew Flintoff picked up three
wickets each. England in reply lost its two
openers Strauss and Trescothick. Strauss was
bowled by Vaas’ inswinger and Trescothick was a
victim of a run out and England finished Day 1
at 53/2.
Day 2 : Sri Lanka come back into the game in
a dramatic fashion
Sri Lanka bowled out the homeside for 229 to
dramatically clinch the first innings lead.
England lost their way after Kevin Pietersen’s
dangerous innings of 41 came to and end courtesy
of Muttiah Muralitharan. Only Paul Collingwood
could stick to the wicket for a long time and he
was the 8th wicket to go down after scoring a
patient 48. The damage was done by all the four
bowlers used by Sri Lanka and Murali was the
most successful taking three wickets. Sri Lanka
in their 2nd innings lost just the wicket of
Michael Vandort to close the 2nd day’s play with
a lead of 47 with 9 more wickets in hand.
Day 3 : England in trouble as Sri Lanka head
towards setting a challenging target
Sri Lanka ended Day 3 at 286 for 7 to take their
lead to 288. The Sri Lankan 2nd innings was well
held by Upul Tharanga and Kumar Sangakkara and
the latter made a valuable 66. Jayawardene,
Dilshan and Kapugedera all contributed with
useful scores as the visitors piled up the
pressure on England to chase a 300 plus target
in the fourth innings.
Sri Lanka won this Test Match thanks to the one
man show of Muttiah Muralitharan and they have
forced England to draw the 3-Tests Series 1-1.
It’s the end of a well fought Test Series in
which Sri Lanka performed remarkably well
despite its continuous top order batting
failures.
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