Archives

Sa'adi Thawfeeq reporting from England

LONDON - England once again proved they had the measure of Sri Lanka at Test level when they recorded their second consecutive series victory with a 2-0 triumph in the recently concluded three-Test series.

With this victory Nasser Hussain's men have proved they are equally capable of beating Sri Lanka both at home and away. During the winter of 2000-01 England beat Sri Lanka 2-1 in Sri Lanka.

The difference between the two series is that England worked out ways and means of countering the lethal spin of Muttiah Muralitharan who formed the core of the Sri Lankan bowling attack. Once he was made ineffective, the English batsmen were at ease against the rest of the bowling, which apart from Chaminda Vaas hardly posed a threat.

Vaas, who bowled so magnificently in the series at home taking 16 wickets at 15.25, was a shadow of himself in figures in England. He ended the series at the bottom of the bowling averages with only four wickets at an astonishing cost of 108.50.

The averages below show there wasn't a great deal of difference between the two sides, but England in their conditions outplayed Sri Lanka with more foresight and planning.

Marvan Atapattu, Mahela Jayawardene and Russell Arnold made a century each in the series and with Aravinda de Silva, topped the 200-run mark and averaged over 40.

The biggest failure for Sri Lanka was the captain Sanath Jayasuriya. In the two series against England (home and away) he has scored only 190 runs in 10 innings to average 19.00 with the bat. He has failed to reach 50 in any of the innings and his early dismissals in the innings had an overall effect in the rest of the batting, which forced him to drop himself down in the order for the final Test at Old Trafford.

Jayasuriya's technique against the moving ball and the extra bounce is suspect, which has resulted in him scoring only two of his nine Test hundreds abroad, one against Australia at Adelaide seven years ago and the other, a double ton against England at the Oval in 1998.

Kumar Sangakkara was the other disappointment. His best contributions came towards the end of the Test series - 40 and 32 at Old Trafford and one hope he is coming to terms with the English conditions on his first tour of the country.

For England Mark Butcher was outstanding, only a mystery ball from Muralitharan termed by some here as a "ball from hell" that pitched outside leg stump and took his off bail depriving of a century in each of the three Tests. That Butcher and Marcus Trescothick topped the England batting with averages over 80 speaks much for the success left-handers have against the spin of Muralitharan.

Michael Vaughan, Graham Thorpe, Alec Stewart and Nasser Hussain all provided substance to the England batting which totally dominated the Sri Lankan bowling with the exception of an initial hiccup at Lord's.

Matthew Hoggard was the outstanding bowler of the series taking 14 wickets at an average of 32.07. No other bowler took more than nine wickets.

CENTURIES (9)

Sri Lanka (3):

185 - M.S. Atapattu (1st Test, Lord's)
109 - R.P. Arnold (3rd Test, Old Trafford)
107 - D.P.M. Jayawardene (1st Test, Lord's)

England (6):

161 - M.E. Trescothick (2nd Test, Edgbaston)
123 - G.P. Thorpe (2nd Test, Edgbaston)
123 - M.A. Butcher (3rd Test, Old Trafford)
123 - A.J. Stewart (3rd Test, Old Trafford)
115 - M.P. Vaughan (1st Test, Lord's)
105 - M.A. Butcher (1st Test, Lord's)

FIFTIES (12)

Sri Lanka (5):

88 - P.A. de Silva (1st Test, Lord's)
62 - R.P. Arnold (3rd Test, Old Trafford)
59 - D.P.M. Jayawardene (2nd Test, Edgbaston)
56 - M.S. Atapattu (2nd Test, Edgbaston)
50 - R.P. Arnold (1st Test, Lord's)

England (7):

94 - M.A. Butcher (2nd Test, Edgbaston)
81 - M.E. Trescothick (3rd Test, Old Trafford)
76 - M.E. Trescothick (1st Test, Lord's)
68 - N. Hussain (1st Test, Lord's)
65 - G.P. Thorpe (1st Test, Lord's)
64 - M.P. Vaughan (1st Test, Lord's)
57 - N. Hussain (1st Test, Lord's)

CENTURY PARTNERSHIPS (10)

Sri Lanka (4)

1st wkt - 107 - M.S. Atapattu/R.P. Arnold/K. Sangakkara (3rd Test, Old Trafford)

3rd wkt - 206 - M.S. Atapttu/D.P.M. Jayawardene (1st Test, Lord's)

3rd wkt - 105 - M.S. Atapattu/D.P.M. Jayawardene (2nd Test, Edgbaston)

4th wkt - 146 - M.S. Atapattu/P.A. de Silva (1st Test, Lord's)

England (6)

1st wkt - 168 - M.E. Trescothick/M.P. Vaughan (1st Test, Lord's)

2nd wkt - 202 - M.E. Trescothick/M.A. Butcher (2nd Test, Edgbaston)

2nd wkt - 126 - M.E. Trescothick/M.A. Butcher (3rd Test, Old Trafford)

3rd wkt - 159 - M.A. Butcher/N. Hussain (1st Test, Lord's)

3rd wkt - 106 - M.P. Vaughan/N. Hussain (1st Test, Lord's)

8th wkt - 102 - A.J. Stewart/A.F. Giles (3rd Test, Old Trafford)

FIVE WICKETS OR MORE IN AN INNINGS (2)

Sri Lanka (1):

5/143 - M. Muralitharan (2nd Test, Edgbaston)

England (1):

5/92 - M.J. Hoggard (2nd Test, Edgbaston)

Note: No bowler from either side took ten wickets or more in a match. The best was 7/109 by A.J. Tudor for England (3rd Test, Old Trafford).

RUN RATE: Sri Lanka made 2147 runs for 49 wickets off 529.5 overs scoring at the rate of 43.81 runs per wicket and 67.50 runs per 100 balls.

England made 1911 runs for 35 wickets off 578.2 overs scoring at the rate of 54.60 runs per wicket and 55.07 runs per 100 balls.

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