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| Friday, 5 December 2003 |
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Murali send England spinning as Test heads for early finish Sa'adi Thawfeeq reporting from Galle GALLE, Tuesday - The first cricket Test between Sri Lanka and England was heading for an early finish after 13 wickets fell on an absorbing third day at the Galle International Stadium here today. A destructive spell of off-spin bowling by the indomitable Muttiah Muralitharan who took seven wickets for 46 runs off 31.4 overs saw England dismissed for 235 in reply to Sri Lanka's first innings of 331. England however struck back through their spinners Ashley Giles and Gareth Batty to reduce Sri Lanka to 99 for five wickets by the close, thus setting up an enthralling finish to the Test. With two days left, Sri Lanka who led England by 96 runs on the first innings, hold onto an overall lead of 195 with five wickets in hand on a spiteful spin-friendly pitch which had batsmen struggling to hit the ball out of the square. Sri Lanka will need to bat as long as possible because every run they add to their first innings lead will make England's task difficult especially on the fourth innings against Muralitharan and Co. The 31-year-old spinner wreaked havoc in the England batting ranks after Chaminda Vaas had got the initial breakthrough for the day by trapping Graham Thorpe lbw for 43. Muralitharan described Thorpe's wicket as the 'turning point' of the England innings. "Thorpe is one of the best players England have. It was a crucial wicket for us," said Muralitharan at the end of the day's play. Eventful first hour England started the day promisingly at 97 for two and in an eventful first hour's play moved to 130-2 with Butcher being put down twice at 18 - a return catch to Muralitharan and at 19 by wicket-keeper Sangakkara off Muralitharan. Thorpe was lucky to survive a catch in the gully by Samaraweera off Jayasuriya which umpire Daryl Harper negatived when it was clear as day that the ball had come off Thorpe's bat as he jabbed down on the ball. Thorpe then on 29 went onto score 43 with four fours. Sri Lanka needed to separate the overnight left-handed pair to enable Muralitharan who was not so effective against southpaws to attack the rest of the batting. They were kept waiting for nearly 1 1/2 hours before Hashan Tillakaratne turned to his trusted left-arm fast bowler Vaas who obliged his captain by trapping Thorpe as he shuffled across his stumps. With Thorpe out of the way, Muralitharan was brought into the attack once again and he caused havoc among the rest of the England batting. In three wicket-taking spells he took 2 for 15 off 9 overs, 3 for 9 off 9 overs and 2 for 11 off 3.4 overs to end with seven scalps. The 39th occasion he had taken five wickets or more in a Test innings in his illustrious career. Jayasuriya removed the obdurate Butcher for 51 when he attempted a cut and edged a catch behind the wicket after hugging the crease for 235 minutes and 207 balls during which period he struck four fours. The hard working Dharmasena was rewarded with the wicket of Gareth Batty when he had him caught on the sweep at leg slip for 14. But Upul Chandana went unrewarded despite bowling a tight line and length. His only chance of a wicket went abegging when Sangakkara missed a stumping chance off Batty before he had scored. England slumped to 183-8 but the last two wickets added 52 runs to push them over the 200-run mark. Giles scored 18 with two sixes and Johnson a feisty 26 off 29 balls inclusive of two sixes and a four. Both fell to catches in the deep squareleg by Atapattu off Muralitharan. 'My best ball' - Murali "The wicket helped me and I had the support of the other bowlers. It think it was a good performance. My best ball was to Michael Vaughan. It spun and went through his legs," said Muralitharan. "Everyone expects me to take the wickets but there are other bowlers like Chandana, Dharmasena, Jayasuriya and Vaas who are good enough to take wickets. Today was my day, maybe tomorrow will be one of theirs," he said. Muralitharan was of the opinion if Sri Lanka scored another 100 runs they had a good chance of winning. "We are nearly 200 runs ahead but still there are a few batters to come. In the first innings I had to get some runs because the top order failed. We had to make up for them," he said. Muralitharan scored 38 out of a last wicket stand of 40 with Vaas and he may be required to repeat that performance again tomorrow following another dismal batting failure by the top order in the second innings when they lost five wickets for 85. Following the pointless run out of Kumar Sangakkara for 19, Sri Lanka lost four wickets for 13 runs in a display of senseless batting. "It won't be easy for us to bowl England out a second time because they too have some world class batsmen. I think we'll have to persevere and keep them quiet and wait for things to happen. This wicket has a little bit of bounce than the one's we played here before," said Muralitharan. He said the present England side was short of experience compared to the one that won the series here in 2001. "The present line up does not have much experience apart from Thorpe, Trescothick and a few others. In the 2001 side, there was so much experience with Nasser Hussain, Alex Stewart and Graeme Hick. That's the difference," he said. SRI LANKA - 1ST INNINGS 331 (K. Sangakkara 71, S. Jayasuriya 48, T. Samaraweera 45,M. Muralitharan 38, Giles 4-69, Flintoff 3-42) ENGLAND - 1ST INNINGS Overnight 97-2) M. Trescothick c Sangakkara b Muralitharan 23 M. Vaughan b Muralitharan 24 M. Butcher c Sangakkara b Jayasuriya 51 G. Thorpe lbw b Vaas 43 P. Collingwood c Jayasuriya b Muralitharan 1 A. Flintoff lbw b Muralitharan 1 C. Read c Tillakaratne b Muralitharan 0 G. Batty c Jayasuriya b Dharmasena 14 A. Giles c Atapattu b Muralitharan 18 R. Johnson c Atapattu b Muralitharan 26 M. Hoggard not out 6 Extras (b12, lb8, nb8) 28 TOTAL 235 FALL OF WICKETS: 1-56, 2-67, 3-142, 4-143, 5-151, 6-155, 7-177, 8-183, 9-208. BOWLING: Vaas 12-2-25-1, Fernando 3-1-21-0, Dharmasena 24-6-55-1, Muralitharan 31.4-15-46-7, Chandana 13-2-24-0, Jayasuriya 17-2-44-1. SRI LANKA - 2ND INNINGS M. Atapattu st Read b Batty 35 S. Jayasuriya c Trescothick b Giles 17 K. Sangakkara run out 19 M. Jayawardene not out 14 H. Tillakaratne lbw b Batty 1 T. Samaraweera c Trescothick b Giles 1 C. Vaas not out 6 Extras (lb6) 6 TOTAL (for five wickets) 99 FALL OF WICKETS: 1-26, 2-72, 3-72, 4-78, 5-85. BOWLING: Hoggard 6-1-24-0, Johnson 2-1-6-0, Flintoff 3-1-9-0, Giles 19-8-24-2, Batty 13.3-4-28-2, Vaughan 1-0-2-0. |
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