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by Elmo Rodrigopulle

The Sri Lankans heaped shame on the Englishmen when they asked them to follow-on. but all credit to the homesters for fighting back and earning somewhat of an honourable draw in the First of three Test matches.

When England were asked to bat again, the lords at Lord's would certainly have had their heads hanging down in shame, unable to stomach the ignominy.

But then England have always been a side hard to beat. And in coming out with a draw showed that they still h ave the traditional grit, not to capitulate and surrender meekly.

The British lion roared majestically and the draw they earned would have raised their spirits and given them the necessary encouragement to show their skills in Edgbaston where the Second Test begins on Thursday.

The batsmen who helped England escape with a draw were Trescothick, Vaughan, Butcher, Hussain and Thorpe. All batted courageously, correctly and played the bowling on its merits, cutting out the frills and the big score they made in the second innings speaks for this.

That the Sri Lankans failed to ram home the advantage after asking the Englishmen to follow-on was mainly due to their pacemen failing to maintain the ability shown in the first innings.

They bowled short, gave the batsmen width and not one bowler showed the penetration required to scalp the batsmen. In addition the bowling lacked variety with part time spinners Jayasuriya, Arnold and de Silva going straight, unable to even use the bowlers rough to obtain spin.

Without Muralitheran it was obvious that the Lankans have no match winning bowler which is a sad indictment on those running the game here.

In addition, Jayasuriya and Sangakkara suddenly become butterfingered and that added to their woes. The fielders forgot the time honoured adage that 'catches win matches.'

Left armer Ruchira Perera was one bowler the England batsmen feared. This was obvious because they could not read him. He beat most of the batsmen with sheer pace and also struck them painful blows that had them ducking in fear.

But the English media saw to it that he was stopped in his tracks. Their TV cameras were focused on him and not on the game as it should have been and some of the commentators developed a incurable verbal diarrhoea till the umpires were forced to report the bowler to the third umpire who in turn did his job by informing the ICC of the bowler's action being suspect.

The Australia and England media have the disgusting attitude of paying undue attention to a bowler's action when he gets into the wicket taking act. It was no different with Perera and now the bowler is under a cloud of uncertainty with his future in the balance.

The Australian and England umpires too suffer a similar ailment like their media counterparts.

The Sri Lankan management tried to play down the calamity that had struck Perera saying that he is not unduly worried because he does not read the newspapers or watch TV.

But Perera showed that the overkill by the media and TV had upset him, the way he sprayed the ball all over the place in the England second innings.

It will be interesting to watch whether they will play Ruchira Perera in the Second Test. But what was intriguing in this episode was that bowling coach Darryl Foster did not see anything wrong in Perera's action.

Anyway Perera who has played seven previous Tests without any hassle has finally been reported and now it will be corrective therapy for him.

The wicket at Edgbaston where the Second Test begins has a knack of favouring seam and swing bowling. Sri Lanka will sure go in top heavy with pacemen.

But they will do well to rethink this ploy, drop one seamer and go in with a spinner and as for us that spinner should be leg spin/goggly bowler the irrepressible Upul Chandana.

Chandana in addition to adding variety to the attack, will inspire the fielders with his excellent catching and bull's eye throwing. he is also a batsman who can wade into any attack and smash it to pieces.

England batsmen have been known to show weakness against leg spin/goggly bowling with Aussie spinner Shane Warne being a case in point. So playing Chandana will be a good bet.

Once again marvellous Marvan Atapattu will have to come good with the bat and play a long innings as he did at Lord's. If he stays put at the wicket and blunt the opposing attack, the other batsmen could look for the runs.

Sangakkara and Jayasuriya are too good to keep failing while the stylish and elegant Mahela Jayawardene will endeavour to once again play a responsible innings and add to his growing stature as one of the best willow wielders in the business today.

The experienced Aravinda de Silva cocked a snook at his detractors who kept him in cricket's wilderness for far too long. He showed good application, got in line with the ball and executed his strokes when the bad balls came along. He has no doubt added the muscle to the middle order batting.

Arnold too came good and should carry on from where he left.

England selectors will be happy with the form of their batters. It is the bowling that is causing them concern. To play raw pacie Simon Jones and Alex Tudor or both will be their dilemma.

However, the teams will not want to finalise their playing elevens until, they know what the weather is and have a look at the wicket on the morning of the match. 

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