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From the press box by Sa'adi Thawfeeq

Has the bubble finally burst in Sri Lanka's cricket success at Test level?

The 2-0 thrashing they received at the hands on Nasser Hussain's Englishmen in their maiden Test series in England, played in the first half of the season, reflects that Sanath Jayasuriya's boys have still a lot of homework to do before they can be ranked up there against countries like Australia, South Africa and Pakistan.

Following nine consecutives Test wins on the trot, eight of which were at home, the England tour was the first big Test for Jayasuriya's boys. The fact that they came unstuck proves that there a few grey areas where work needs to be done before they go to South Africa in October and then Australia in December.

The shortcomings in England were two-fold. In the batting, the batsmen were not capable of handling the swing and bounce of the ball and lacked the patience to build an innings, and in the bowling, the fast bowlers lacked length and direction. With a half-fit Muttiah Muralitharan and an ineffective Chaminda Vaas, two bowlers who have taken more than 600 Test wickets between them meant that Sri Lanka's bowling was always going to be sub-standard.

With the exception of the first Test at Lord's where vice-captain Marvan Atapattu played the sheet anchor role for a monumental 185 in over eight hours, the batsmen lacked the application and the will power to graft an innings out in the middle.

Atapattu apart, the rest of the Sri Lankan batting are stroke players and Hussain had only to play the waiting game asking his bowlers to bowl a tight line and length before the batsmen played a rash stroke. Where they failed, was by trying to play too often on the front foot and reaching out for balls which eventually found the edge, instead of waiting for the ball to come on to the bat and play it late, which at least gave them time to make any late adjustments, if required.

Aravinda de Silva with loads of experience in English condition s did just that, but Hussain was too clever for him and plotted out his downfall rather skillfully. To station himself at leg slip and ask Andy Flintoff to bounce at De Silva in the first innings at Old Trafford was a smart ploy. Although Atapattu was the anchorman and a most difficult batsman to dismiss, England saw the highly talented Mahela Jayawardene as the main danger for them. They saw him as a batsman who had the ability to turn a game around with his fluent stroke play. The ease with which he played both pace and spin alike made him a world-class performer.

He reminds one so much of Aravinda de Silva in his early stages as an international cricketer. De Silva had the habit of throwing his wicket away when he was well set for a big innings. He matured and became a consistent performer at international level only after he played one season with English county Kent in 1995, which tightened up his game considerably. Although Jayawardene (24) does not possess the exceptional talents of De Silva at the same age, he no doubt has time on his side to develop into Sri Lanka's highest run scorer in Tests and One-day internationals, both records which are held currently by De Silva. Jayawardene is certain to mature quicker than De Silva because of the constant exposure to international cricket Sri Lanka are getting at present. De Silva wasted five good years of his career (1987-1992) when Sri Lanka played only 12 Tests, all away, as no team was willing to tour the country because of the uncertain climate that existed during that period.

That Jayawardene received the man-of-the-series award for Sri Lanka in the series (he averaged 54) is an indication of how important his wicket was to England.

Muralitharan and Vaas are the only two bowlers who have captured over one Test wickets for Sri Lanka, and they undoubtedly represented the main striking force of the bowling attack. With only a half fit Muralitharan for the series and Vaas unable to produce that late left-armers swing in conducive conditions, Sri Lanka's bowling was not sufficient to bowl out a side like England for anything less than 500. The only occasion they succeeded was in the first innings of the Lord's Test when they dismissed the hosts for 275. England regrouped superbly after that dismal batting display to run up totals in excess of 500 in each of their next three innings, and outplay Sri Lanka.

Vaas himself admitted that the Duke balls used for the series hardly swung and reverse swing was difficult to get in English conditions. The official tour program carries an interesting piece about the Duke ball. It reads: "The selection of the Duke ball for the Test matches is good sense on England's part. It stays shiny for longer than other brands and Caddick, Gough and Hoggard can make it swing, which adds a vital component. It will also assist Vaas, but probably won't benefit any of the other Sri Lankan bowlers notably, Muralitharan, who would prefer the harder, high-seamed alternatives".

As Hussain said the other day, the credit of England's success in nullifying the spin threat of Muralitharan goes to their coach Duncan Fletcher, who gave each of the players a technique on how to play him. How successful that technique was can be gauged by the fact that Muralitharan took only eight wickets bowling 126 overs which gave him a strike rate of 95 balls for each wicket. It would be pertinent to mention here that Muralitharan was not 100 percent fit, but yet for all, England had at least adopted a strategy to negate his wiles and deprive him wickets. In the previous series played between the two countries in Sri Lanka in 2000-01, England allowed Muralitharan only 14 wickets off 236 overs, a strike rate of a wicket every 101 balls, even under his own home conditions.

Beating England in their condition, especially in the first half of the summer is no easy task. With the exception of Australia, no country has won a series in England in the past three years, Sri Lanka were no exception. There was much hype and great expectations from Sri Lanka to perform well in England more so after their run of nine consecutive Test wins and their position as the third best Test team in the ICC rankings. But the real truth is, Sri Lanka have won a Test outside their own territory only on eight occasions, and outside the subcontinent, only thrice - in New Zealand, England and Zimbabwe. It's no surprise they failed here.

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