Murali, the master as England lose by 134 runs

CRICKET: Muttiah Muralitharan ended what perhaps will be his final tour to England on a memorable note bowling his country to a convincing 134 runs victory in the third and final cricket Test against England at Trent Bridge, Nottingham here Monday with more than a day to spare.

Chasing their biggest winning target on this ground of 325 runs, England were bundled out for 190 with Muralitharan going onto to take eight wickets for 70 runs off 30 overs and 10 maidens and a match bag of 11 for 132, the 53rd time he had taken five-for in a Test innings and the 16th time he had taken a match bag of over ten wickets, fourth against England.

The win enabled Sri Lanka to share the three-Test series one-all with England. It was Sri Lanka's second Test win in England following their ten wickets triumph at the Oval in 1998 when Muralitharan took 16 wickets in the match including nine for 65 in the second innings. Muralitharan quite rightly won the man of the match award.

Sanath Jayasuriya, the oldest member of the Lankan team at 36 captured the final wicket trapping Panesar lbw for 26 ending a 37-run cameo last wicket partnership with Plunkett who remained not out on 22.

The odds were certainly against England when they started their run chase on a wearing pitch, which had a lot of rough patches from the bowlers follow through.

But a spinner of Muralitharan's class did not need any help from the pitch to condemn England to defeat.

He conjured up all the tricks in his book the especially the off-break and the doosra to expose the frailties of the English batting against high class spin in the calibre of Muralitharan and Shane Warne of Australia.

Last year at this venue England beat Australia by three wickets to take a winning 2-1 lead in the Ashes series with Warne single-handedly taking eight wickets.

England came into this series riding high on their Ashes triumph over Australia of last season. Most of the English tabloids predicted a 3-0 win for England against Sri Lanka. But all of them were proved wrong by a doughty Sri Lankan side who fought hard to draw the first Test at Lord's after trailing by 349 runs, lost the second at Edgbaston by six wickets through their own mistakes and, finally won the third here and final Test at Trent Bridge by learning from their mistakes.

An opening partnership of 84 off 168 balls by Trescothick and Strauss raised English hopes as they began their run chase 69 minutes before lunch. But once the effects of the roller had gone, the pitch started to spin and bite to Muralitharan's delight and he simply ran through the English batting which wilted under pressure.

Top scorer for England was Strauss with 55 made in 147 minutes (6 fours). Sri Lanka resuming at 286-7 were dismissed 42 minutes into the morning of the fourth day for 322 with left-arm spinner Monty Panesar finishing with his first five-for haul in Test cricket with figures of five for 78.

Sri Lanka lost Chamara Kapugedera (50) to the third ball of the morning when he glanced a ball of his legs to Cook at short leg. But England had to wait for a further 30 minutes and 33 runs before gaining a second wicket.

Lasith Malinga joined Chaminda Vaas and with a few lusty blows raced to 22 off 16 balls before he was bowled round his legs by Panesar who also took Muralitharan's wicket as he skied a catch to long off.

Vaas was left unbeaten on 34 scored in 137 minutes of 100 balls (4 fours) carrying his batting average in the series to an impressive 92 for twice out in six innings.

President congratulates

President Mahinda Rajapaksa congratulated the Sri Lanka cricket team on their convincing 134 - run win over England in the third Test concluded at Nottingham yesterday.

President Rajapaksa has commended the fighting qualities of the Sri Lankan team, which bounced back after losing the second Test at Trent Bridge by six wickets.

The sports-loving President also paid a special tribute to ace spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, who led the Lankan fight back with an eight wicket haul in England's second innings to complete a match bag of 11 wickets.

The President has also wished greater success to the Sri Lanka team in the upcoming five-match ODI series.

SRI LANKA 1ST INNINGS 231

ENGLAND 1ST INNINGS 229
SRI LANKA 2ND INNINGS (Overnight: 286-7)
Michael Vandort b Hoggard 			  5
Upul Tharanga c Cook b Panesar 			 46
Kumar Sangakkara c Trescothick b Flintoff 	 66
Mahela Jayawardene c Jones b Plunkett		 45
Sanath Jayasuriya lbw b Panesar 		  4
Tillakaratne Dilshan c Jones b Hoggard 		 32
Chamara Kapugedera c Cook b Plunkett 		 50
Farveez Maharoof b Panesar 			  6
Chaminda Vaas not out 				 34
Lasith Malinga b Panesar 			 22
Muttiah Muralitharan c Strauss b Panesar 	  2
Extras: (1b, 3lb, 1w, 5nb) 			 10
TOTAL: (all out) 				322

OVERS: 113.1. Batting Time: 472 minutes.

FALL: 1-6, 2-100, 3-143, 4-148, 5-191, 
6-223, 7-238, 8-287, 9-320, 10-322.

BOWLING: Matthew Hoggard 22-4-71-2, Jon Lewis 20-6-54-0, 
Andrew Flintoff 13-1-38-1 (2nb) Monty Panesar 37.1-13-78-5, 
Liam Plunkett 19-2-65-2 (3nb, 1w), Kevin Pietersen 2-0-12-0.

ENGLAND - 2ND INNINGS

Marcus Trescothick b Muralitharan 		 31
A. Strauss c Jayawardene b Muralitharan 	 55
Alastair Cook lbw b Muralitharan 		  5
Kevin Pietersen c Dilshan b Muralitharan 	  6
Paul Collingwood c Dilshan b Muralitharan 	  9
Andrew Flintoff c Dilshan b Muralitharan 	  0
Geraint Jones b Muralitharan 			  6
Liam Plunkett not out 				 22
Matthew Hoggard run out (Kapugudera) 		  4
Jon Lewis lbw b Muralitharan 			  7
Monty Panesar lbw b Jayasuriya 			 26
Extras: (13b, 1lb, 1w, 4nb) 			 19
TOTAL: (all out) 				190

OVERS: 68.5. Batting time: 251 minutes.

FALL: 1-84, 2-104, 3-111, 4-120, 5-120, 
6-125, 7-132, 8-136, 9-153, 10-190.

BOWLING: Chaminda Vaas 9-1-28-0 (1nb), Lasith Malinga 7-0-24-0 (1nb, 1w), 
Muttiah Muralitharan 30-10-70-8 (2nb), Sanath Jayasuriya 22.5-3-54-1.