Archives

LONDON, Tuesday (Reuters) - Sri Lanka minus Muttiah Muralitharan and England with their one-dimensional attack resembled two armies who had shields but no swords in the high-scoring drawn first test at Lord's.

How to take 20 wickets if confronted by another bland pitch is the pressing problem for England captain Nasser Hussain and his opposite number Sanath Jayasuriya in the second test at Edgbaston starting on Thursday.

Jayasuriya would like nothing more than to be able to call on the talents of his potential match-winner Muralitharan but the off-spinning magician has still not fully recovered from an injury to his left shoulder and it seems as though his first appearance of the series will have to wait until the third and final test at Old Trafford.

Sri Lanka's four-pronged pace attack responded to Muralitharan being sidelined by dismissing England for 275 in the first innings at Lord's but they were exposed when Hussain's men followed on 280 behind.

England saved the match by diligent batting on a pitch that became more benign the longer the game went on and they amassed 529 for five declared, with the top five in the order contributing two hundreds and three half-centuries.

As the door gradually closed on the prospect of a 10th consecutive test win for Sri Lanka, the spotlight fell increasingly on left-arm seamer Ruchira Perera's suspect action which at the end of the test was reported to the International Cricket Council (ICC) by umpires Srinivas Venkataraghavan of India and Australia's Daryl Harper.

Perera, who had a five-wicket match haul at Lord's, has been working with Australian specialist bowling advisor Daryl Harper to iron out the problems with his action, and a report on their progress must be submitted to the ICC after six weeks.

In the meantime there is nothing to stop Perera from playing international cricket and, given the continued absence of Muralitharan, he is likely to keep his place at Edgbaston.

Certainly, there has been scant chance for other bowlers in the squad to press their test claims, with rain washing out the last three days of the four-day match against Glamorgan in Cardiff at the weekend -- the touring team's only game between the first and second tests.

For the moment, Sri Lanka's main strength remains their batting. They took 555 for eight declared off the England attack in the first test, prompting Hussain to call for a bowler of "raw pace" to rattle his opponents.

England's selectors replied by naming just such a player -- Glamorgan's Simon Jones. The son of former test paceman Jeff Jones, he was among a group of promising cricketers chosen for the English National Academy and impressed its Australian director Rod Marsh when working under him in the former test wicketkeeper's home country late last year.

Jones is in a squad of 14 for Edgbaston where England are again likely to bank on four seamers, meaning he is competing with Dominic Cork and Alex Tudor for the remaining place in the attack alongside Andy Caddick, Matthew Hoggard and Andrew Flintoff.

England were conservative in their selections for Lord's.

Playing Jones at Birmingham would be the bold gesture, but one that for the time being they might shy away from.

Unless the pitch offers the prospect of significant pace, England are more likely to give Tudor his first test since the fourth match of the Ashes series last August.

News | Business | Features | Editorial | Security
Politics | World | Letters | Sports | Obituaries |

Produced by Lake House
Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
Comments and suggestions to :Web Manager