I feared for us when Jayawardene was dropped on 90, and was worried that Sri Lanka’s overnight score could be enough, given we have to bat last on a pitch expected to wear. I was still hoping for better than this, given our upturn in the Pakistan ODI series and that most of our batsmen made runs in the warm-ups. 122/6 right now. Herath is a decent enough left-armer, but we’re making him look like… Abdur Rehman. 
Well, that was quite a day.
England’s bowlers are in fine form, particularly with the bat. Broad, Swann, Anderson and Panesar scored 88 of England’s 193 runs. The only batsman to perform was Bell, with 52. From what I heard, Cook and Bell can claim to have fallen to good balls but everyone else made it easy for SL.
Against that, SL’s batsmen are obviously struggling too, at 84/5. And in the first innings, only Jayawardene made a significant score. So it’s not that easy out there. STill, SL are clear favourites to win at this stage. The only question is whether we’ll see Day 4…
I’m getting a strong sense of deja-vu. The frustrating thing is, we finally have the attack to take 20 wickets consistently in the sub-continent, and if we could just bat poorly instead of terribly we would win a fair number of matches.
Yes, and it wasn’t that long ago we thought we had the batting line up too. Strauss has lost form considerably but you’d still expect two of Cook, Trott, Pietersen, Bell and Prior to manage a decent score.
The good news for touring fans is that they will at least see Day Four. SL have… SL have just gone all out for 214 (having been 127 for 7) so England have a modest 340 to get on a deteriorating pitch.
That would be a ground record chase, and would be a big ask even if the batsmen were in form. (OK, many of those chases would have been in the Murali era, but Sri Lanka haven’t scored that many themselves in the 4th innings.) Crucial innings from the other Jayawardene to take it out of reach, putting on nearly 90 out of 214 with the last two tail-enders. I’m afraid we’re back to damage control again. Can our batsmen get anything out of this match, and the rest of the series?
It’s not the despair that kills you. It’s the hope. Sri Lanka are still well ahead, especially with England’s failings against spin. But with 229 more to get at stumps, with 8 wickets in hand, if these two can put on another 100 and Bell bats as he did in the 1st innings, there is a chance England chase this down. Alternatively, they could stick 100-120 on with no wickets going down and then collapse (which is not out of the realm of possibility). I’d rather have the runs on the board. The opening hour tomorrow morning is going to be critical.
Sri Lanka are 1/2 to win. My head tells me that that’s a pretty good return for your money, but a combination of cowardice and forlorn hope are keeping my wallet in my pocket.
Yeah, that’s what I keep thinking. Still, decent effort from Trott and KP to get through to stumps while still moving the scoreboard along.
There’s a clear path to victory, that doesn’t even involve anything too outlandish. You can see it happening - Bell repeats his good form from the first innings, Trott sticks around the way he can, Pieterson, Prior or Patel put on quick runs to force some defensive fields, Swann or Broad come off for 30 or so… it wouldn’t be utterly ridiculous. It’s not crazy to think it might happen.
And yet we know it won’t , because the team has the collective yips about batting spin right now. But yeah, at least this way I can hear the final wickets tumble as I eat my porridge.
Yes, Stanislaus, right on all counts. It’s funny how these things work. If we get a bit of a partnership going, the pressure will be back on Sri Lanka, as they would be expected to win. But if we start to get close to the target suddenly we’ll be under pressure again, and could implode. It’s amazing how often it plays out like that.
Or we could just fall in a heap in the morning session, like a bunch of one-legged men in a force 10 gale.
235/5, Trott’s made a century. Damn him. This has made my morning considerably tenser than it need be.
QA(gain)FT. Patel gone, and I don’t think Broad has the discipline to stay with him.
And now Trott’s gone. By all account, three brilliant catches from Sri Lanka. Still, at least we can relax.
Motherfucker.
I was keeping hope at bay but those three catches have made me realise I was kidding myself and that small flame was being kept alive. It’s gone now. Cliche it may be - but catches really do win matches.
Unlike the the games in the UAE, this has to go down as more of a collective failure as far as I can tell. Yes, we’ve batted like simpletons in the 1st innings but we’ve also had them on the ropes in both innings and let them score far too many with their tail end batsmen. Monty is responsible for, what, 20 or 30 runs (?) of this chase simply for dropping Mahela Jayawardene in the 1st innings, Swann did nothing in the 1st innings and was suitably milked for too many runs (though dragged us back in innings two) and Broad cost us 60 odd with that no ball on the caught and bowled.
The bowlers did well to drag us back into it but didn’t finish the job in either innings when they were 7 down. This one is going to be a team defeat – with more emphasis on the bats who should not be let off lightly for the collective failure in the 1st innings – but the bowling unit has been culpable too.
So the Pak ODIs were a fluke for the England batting it seems. This reminds of Yevgeny Kefelnikov who after becoming world number 1 lost a series of first round matches.
Maybe Strauss does need to go. There must be some other good opener in the County Championship who can replace him.
Wow - when I left the broadcast an hour ago the game was still on. Just returned to the screen to find that the last six wickets fell for just 31 runs. Randiv and Herath split them 4/6. England does not cope well with spin.
Anderson also dropped Jayawardene when he was on 90 off his own bowling. On the no-ball dismissal, if he hadn’t overstepped there is no way of knowing if the batsman would have got himself out, it’s meaningless. To bowl Sri Lanka out for 318 & 214 is another fine effort by the bowlers, despite the missed opportunities. Again, it’s the dismal first innings batting which has cost us. It’s not the bowlers fault their efforts are being rendered meaningless.
Another demoralising and depressing result, but at least Bell and Trott have found some form. It does at least leave us with a chance of levelling the series in Columbo.
Overstepping dismissals are something impossible to call. Would the same thing have happened if there was no overstep?
I watched a fair bit of the England second innings and thought their was a genuine hope. There was spin, but slow spin.
I don’t think Strauss should go- he is the one holding the side together as Captain.Who else steps up?
Cook is the obvious candidate, he led us to victory in the Pakistan ODI games with a couple centuries, and has already captained the test side in Bangladesh. I think Strauss will step down if he doesn’t make runs in the summer.
Nah. Give the captaincy to Pietersen so Australia has the best chance of getting the Ashes back.
You should also bring Harmison back. And Ashley Giles.