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| Thursday, 11 December 2003 |
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Harper steals the show at Asgiriya by Sa'adi Thawfeeq reporting from Kandy KANDY, Wednesday - If Australia and International Cricket Council (ICC) umpire Daryl Harper is feeling like a fugitive on the run, no one is going show any empathy for him. On the opening day of the second cricket Test between Sri Lanka and England at the Asgiriya Stadium here today, Harper who had fluffed quite a number of umpiring decisions in the drawn first Test at Galle, was living up to his image. Harper turned down two possible lbw decisions against Sanath Jayasuriya and then gave him out caught off his pads. He followed this up by giving Thilan Samaraweera lbw to a ball from Ashley Giles that pitched way outside off stump and would have required another set of stumps to hit. On September 1, Harper wrote an article for Referees and Umpires.com.au titled 'Life on the Run'. His opening paragraphs read: "Since last April, I've often felt like the fugitive, Dr. Richard Kimble, the guy on the run in the TV series from the sixties. He was falsely convicted for the murder of his wife. At least I've only been accused of a few ordinary lbw decisions. He was on the run for years, moving from hotel to hotel. I've been doing the same myself for some time now, but in between, I've seen a lot of good cricket." In the on-going series Harper finds himself accused of not only 'a few ordinary lbw decisions' but also of some outlandish bat-pad verdicts which has earned him the ire of players and the cricketing public alike. The only thing that Harper has got right is the number of balls in an over which he quite obediently checks after every five balls with the official scorers by gesturing with the white handkerchief he wears at his waist. Flat track Tillakaratne Dilshan scored his maiden Test half-century on his return to the national Test team after 33 months, to enable Sri Lanka end the first day on 277 for seven wickets on a flat batting track. The total does not justify skipper Hashan Tillakaratne's decision to bat first after winning his second consecutive toss of the series. Tillakaratne, who is short of Test runs, is unbeaten on 45 at stumps having batted for 135 minutes and hit four fours. He has shown glimpses of returning to his old batting form, which has kept his Test career average hovering around 45. Sri Lanka could have been better placed had they lost less wickets at the end of the day, but England in recent times have shown a tendency to keep working hard for success and they have been amply rewarded. Today was one of those days and England can be well satisfied that they have captured seven Sri Lankan wickets at the end of the day. England coach Duncan Fletcher summed it up by saying: "I am very happy with 277-7 on a fast outfield like that. In Galle they would have been about 240-7. The guys stuck to their game and showed a lot of character to sort of grind it out." "This is a real flat wicket even flatter than Galle. Once again we don't want to find excuses. It's about time we won the toss and batted under better conditions in Sri Lanka. That's five in-a-row we've lost," said Fletcher. Dilshan sparkles Dilshan who replaced leg-spinner Upul Chandana in a late decision taken by the selectors this morning cut and drove his way to a top score of 63 in 132 minutes before gloving a short rising ball from Flintoff to Trescothick at first slip in the third over after tea. Dilshan hit 10 sparkling fours in his innings lasting 94 balls. In 10 previous Tests, the last being against England at the SSC in March 2001, Dilshan has only one century against Zimbabwe. With Mahela Jayawardene who was out for 45, Dilshan added 103 for the fourth wicket. Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara who was run out for 34 were the batsmen in form and threw away their wickets rather needlessly. Approaching tea Jayawardene swept Giles high to Kirtley who made good ground at backward squareleg to dive forward and hold a superb catch. Jayawardene had batted with authority and was looking good for a hundred when he got out to an indiscreet shot. He batted for 128 minutes and hit six fours and a six in his 94-balls innings. "I was down to bat at no. 7 today. But when three wickets fell quickly in the morning session, the coach asked me whether I could go out and bat straightway after lunch. I accepted the responsibility because I have been scoring runs in the Premier league this season batting at no. 4," said Dilshan. "I played positive. If I had tried to be negative on this wicket the bowlers would have got on top even though we had lost three wickets. I thought of using my feet and going after the spinners. By doing that they were forced to push the field back so that batting became easy," said Dilshan. "Giles gets turn by tossing the ball up. So I thought of using my feet to him. The last time England was here I played him very well in the series. He couldn't bowl a tight line and length to me. "I am extremely disappointed at missing out on a hundred on such a good batting track. The ball from Flintoff didn't rise as much as I expected and it was pitched short," he said. That run out Atapattu fell early in the seventh over of the innings to Kirtley as he pushed forward to a delivery hitting middle stump and was out lbw for 11. Sangakkara's dismissal was the most agonizing for he was in outstanding form and looked in good touch for a hundred when he contributed towards his own downfall. He pushed a delivery from Collingwood to Kirtley at mid-on and called for a sharp single. Although it was Sangakkara's call, Jayasuriya realized that the ball had been hit straight to the field cautioned Sangakkara, who had by then dashed halfway down the pitch that there was no run. Kirtley swiftly fielded and returned the ball to wicket-keeper Read, leaving Sangakkara with no chance to make his ground. It was a wasted effort as Sangakkara departed for a well-compiled 34 off 49 balls inclusive of six fours. He dominated a second wicket stand of 56 with Jayasuriya. One wonders what thoughts must have run through Sangakkara's mind as he made his way to the pavilion. The run out must have evoked memories of Port Elizabeth for Sangakkara. During the World Cup semi-final match against Australia, Sangakkara was the offender when he called Aravinda de Silva for a sharp single to short mid wicket. De Silva who was batting beautifully at that time, was tragically run out as his ageing legs failed to beat Andy Bickell's throw from short mid wicket. Jayasuriya's innings was of sorts and it was no surprise when he was dismissed off the last ball before lunch. In two previous overs from Giles, he survived confident lbw shouts as he attempted to sweep straight ball across the line. Umpire Daryl Harper negatived both whereas he could easily have given one of them out and then gave Jayasuriya caught behind by wicket-keeper Read when the ball lobbed in the air off his right pad. Harper should know that two wrongs don't make one right. But that is how umpiring in this series has been. Harper had a poor Test at Galle where apart from some poor decisions he was not even aware where the third umpire was stationed as he kept on repeatedly signalling towards the Sri Lanka balcony, before he finally got it right. Sri Lanka making a rather late change on the morning of the match to exclude leg-spinner Chandana and retain Kumar Dharmasena in the team to make way for an additional batsman Dilshan. It was more or less a defensive move. The thinking behind picking Dharmasena was that he was more effective against left-handers and, for him to choke up one end while Muralitharan reaped his usual harvest from the other. SRI LANKA - FIRST INNINGS M.S. Atapattu lbw b Kirtley 11 S. T. Jayasuriya c Read b Giles 32 K. C. Sangakkara run out 34 D. P. M. Jayawardene c Kirtley b Giles 45 T. M. Dilshan c Trescothick b Flintoff 63 H. P. Tillakaratne not out 45 T. T. Samaraweera lbw b Giles 3 W. P. U. J. C. Vaas lbw b Kirtley 32 H. D. P. K. Dharmasena not out 1 Extras (B-1, LB-8, NB-2) 11 TOTAL (7 wkts at close, 90 overs, 367 mins) 277 FALL OF WICKETS: 1-20 (Atapattu), 2-76 (Sangakkara), 3-84 (Jayasuriya), 4-187 (Jayawardene), 5-201 (Dilshan), 6-206 (Samaraweera), 7-270 (Vaas). TO BAT: K.A.D.M. Fernando, M. Muralitharan BOWLING: Kirtley 20-6-75-2 (2NB), Flintoff 18-3-48-1, Giles 27-5-85-3, Collingwood 7-2-12-0, Batty 13-3-39-0, Vaughan 5-0-9-0. ENGLAND: M. E. Trescothick, M. P. Vaughan, M. A. Butcher, N. Hussain, G. R. Thorpe, P. D. Collingwood, A. Flintoff, C. M. W. Read, G. J. Batty, A. F. Giles, R. J.Kirtley. |
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