Five wicket win gives England Series win

Chris Dhambarage

England powered their way to a historic five wicket victory over Sri Lanka in the fourth one day international played under lights at the R. Premadasa Stadium yesterday.

The visitors also with this win wrapped up the series 3-1 with the fifth and final game scheduled for Saturday at the same venue. This was the first time that England had clinched a one day Series on Sri Lankan soil and also their first series win in the sub continent after 21 years.

Their success of course was delayed to a certain extent when paceman Dilhara Fernando struck twice in successive deliveries with 18 runs still needed for victory. However Kevin Pieterson played his best innings in the series to guide England home scoring an unbeaten 63 from 75 balls with one six and four boundaries.

England’s run chase was spearheaded by their opening batsman Alistair Cook who provided a solid start to the innings along with his partner Phil Mustard. They maintained the required run rate throughout the innings and collected their runs without taking any risks.

Mustard of course departed in the sixth over with the score at 30 having struck four boundaries but Cook carried on with the good work and consolidated their position to set the pace for a series clinching victory.

Cook’s innings had a great amount of significance because he crossed the fifty run mark for the second time in his career while playing in his 15th one day international match.

The left hander from Essex picked the right delivery to hit despite going through some anxious moments in the early stages of his innings and stroked a splendid 80 from 123 balls with six boundaries.

Kevin Pieterson joined opener Cook and the pair virtually took the game away from Sri Lanka with a century partnership for the third wicket. Pieterson who has being struggling with the bat in the three earlier games finally struck form while completing his half century in 57 deliveries with the aid of one six and three boundaries.

Earlier two solid half centuries from Kumar Sangakkara and Chamara Silva helped Sri Lanka pile up 211 for 9 from their 50 overs. The Lankans who needed to win the match to stay alive in the series recovered from another famous batting collapse to rattle up a decent score largely due to the efforts of Kumar Sangakkara and Chamara Silva.

In fact Sangakkara held the innings together with a controlled batting performance after the middle order had been exposed at a very early stage of the game. The elegant left hander played well according to the situation and pulled his team out of trouble with a fighting half century.

Sangakkara’s top score of 69 was studded with just four boundaries but his occupation at the crease was even more important as Sri Lanka rebuild their innings after another batting collapse. His partner Chamara Silva also played an equally brilliant innings and their century partnership helped Sri Lanka to surpass the two hundred run mark only for the second time n the series.

Silva hit a patient 67 from 101 balls with the help of five boundaries and was fourth out after having added 126 runs from 176 balls along with Kumar Sangakkara. In addition Tillekeratne Dilshan and Kaushal Lokuarachchi provided a late flourish while putting on 24 runs for the seventh wicket in five overs.

England of course grabbed the initiative through some splendid seam bowling as they continued from where they left at Dambulla a couple of days ago. They pushed the Lankans on the defensive from the start after skipper Mahela Jayawardena had won the toss and elected to bat first.

However the England fast bowlers made a fine impact by exploiting the conditions with the three prong pace attack of Anderson, Sidebottom and Broad making life difficult for the home side. Sri Lanka had lost both openers Tharanga and Jayasuriya by the sixth over and while Jayawardena departed in the eleventh over the home side had slumped to 20 for 3.

Veteran Jayasuriya playing in his 402nd match looked completely out of form as he laboured for 22 deliveries for his three runs while Tharanga took fourteen balls to score just four runs. Skipper Jayawardena was anxious to get off the mark but the pressure did the damage as he played an ugly shot and was caught brilliantly by a diving Stuart Broad.

Sri Lanka were forced to make a change to their team with fast bowler Farveez Maharoof failing to recover from a sprained muscle injury he sustained while bowling during in the third one day international at the Rangiri Dambulla Stadium on Sunday.

Leg spinner Kaushal Lokuarachchi came into play his first game of the series while England went in with an unchanged side that helped them win last two matches played in Dambulla.

Sri Lanka

U.Tharanga c Shah b Sidebottom		 4
S. Jayasuriya c Pietersen bAnderson	 3
Sangakkara c Bopara b Broad		69
M. Jayawardene c Broad b Anderson	 0
C.Silva c Bopara b Broad		67
K. Lokuarachchi lbw b Collingwood	 9
T.Dilshan b Anderson			17
J.Mubarak b Sidebottom			20
C. Vaas c Pietersen b Sidebottom	 2
Dilhara Fernando not out		 3
Lasith Malinga not out			 3
Extras: (3lb, 11w)			14
TOTAL: (For nine wickets)		211

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-7, 2-16, 3-20,  4-146, 5-158, 
		 6-166, 7-190, 8-195, 9-206.

BOWLING: James Anderson 10-1-33-3 (5w), 
	 Ryan Sidebottom 10-2-27-3 (3w), 
	 Stuart Broad 10-0-54-2 (1w), 
	 Paul Collingwood 6-0-28-1, 
	 Graeme Swann 10-0-48-0 (2w), 
	 Ravi Bopara 4-0-18-0.

ENGLAND innings

A. Cook b Fernando			80
P. Mustard c&b Malinga			19
I. Bell c Malinga b Lokuarachchi	25
K. Pietersen not out			63
P. Collingwood lbw b Fernando 		 0
O. Shah b Malinga 			 9
R. Bopara not out			 1
EXTRAS (lb-4, w-11)			15
TOTAL (five wickets, 46.5 overs		212

Did not bat: G. Swann, S. Broad, R. Sidebottom, J. Anderson

Fall of wickets: 1-30, 2-84, 3-194, 4-194, 5-208

Bowling: Vaas 9-2-39-0 (2w), 
	 Malinga 9-1-39-2 (2w), 
	 Fernando 10-1-38-2 (3w),
	 Lokuarachchi 10-0-57-1, 
	 Jayasuriya 4.5-0-18-0, 
	 Dilshan 4-0-17-0

Man of the match: Alastair Cook (England)