Vaas, Murali bowl Lanka to victory

Chris Dhambarage reporting from Asgiriya

Spin wizard Muttiah Muralitharan snapped up three wickets in four overs to lead Sri Lanka to an emphatic 88 run victory over the touring England team in the opening Test match which concluded at the Asgiriya Stadium in Kandy yesterday.

The game was probably slipping away from the Sri Lankans and time was running out before Muralitharan produced a magical spell late in the evening which helped the home side to take a one nil lead in the three Test series. The second Test starts on December 9 at the SSC grounds in Maitland Place.

Muralitharan who earlier became the highest wicket taker in the game broke a stubborn seventh wicket stand between Ian Bell and Mathew Prior and followed up by trapping Ryan Sidebottom leg before wicket despite having to bowl with the new ball.

Sidebottom’s dismissal however looked doubtful because the television replays indicated that the batsman had got a big inside edge onto his pad.

Nevertheless Muralitharan also completed one hundred wickets against England. Paceman Lasith Malinga then added the finishing touches by uprooting the stumps of Mathew Hoggard in the sixth mandatory over.

Sri Lanka’s success had a great amount of importance because this was their first win at the Asgiriya Stadium against England having earlier lost by three wickets in 2001 and drawn the previous game in 2003.

Earlier Ian Bell and Mathew Prior spearheaded England’s recovery with a record seventh wicket partnership of 109 runs. Bell batted through the entire afternoon session to complete his 16th Test half century with the aid of five boundaries from 153 deliveries.

But it was his commitment and determination that really gave England some hopes of saving the game having frustrated the home side for 153 minutes.

Mathew Prior also displayed the same kind of concentration and application with the intention of building up a long innings.

The wicket keeper batsman played an equally good supporting role only in his eighth appearance for his country while reaching his third Test fifty from 131 deliveries with the help of six boundaries. But the most significant fact was that he kept one end occupied for more than two hours.

The Lankans of course moved closer towards their victory by capturing four wickets during the morning session as England slumped to 125 for 5 at the lunch break. This was mainly due to some splendid seam bowling from veteran Chaminda Vaas and Dilhara Fernando.

In fact left arm paceman Chaminda Vaas struck early by removing the England captain Michael Vaughn in his second over of the day. Vaas playing in his 100th Test match made life difficult for the England batsmen with a mixture of pace and swing to return outstanding figures of three wickets for 29 runs from his opening spell.

His second victim was the night watchman James Anderson who lost his off stump against a beautiful delivery. Anderson of course performed his role well to a certain extent where he occupied the crease for 42 minutes facing 36 deliveries.

Dilhara Fernando then came into the limelight replacing Lasith Malinga while capturing the wickets of Kevin Pieterson and Paul Collingwood during a controlled spell of nine overs in the morning session. Fernando bowled probably the best delivery of the day to pick up the prize wicket of Pieterson for 18.

The England batsman was completely stunned after he was bowled from a swinging delivery that looked like missing the off stump at one stage. Pieterson who did not field during the entire Sri Lankan second innings following a finger injury was settling down for a big score having struck four boundaries from 33 deliveries.

Fernando also deceived Paul Collingwood with another superb slow delivery and England had lost half of their side even before Muttiah Muralitharan had been introduced into the attack.

Collingwood was batting with a great deal of confidence until then having put on a useful 35 runs for the firth wicket together with Ian Bell.

SRI LANKA 1st Innings: 188
ENGLAND 1st Innings: 281
SRI LANKA 2nd Innings: 442-8 dec.
ENGLAND 2nd innings
(Overnight: 9-1)

Alastair Cook c Silva b Vaas			 4
Michael Vaughan c P. Jayawardene b Vaas		 5
James Anderson b Vaas				11
Ian Bell b Muralitharan				74
Kevin Pietersen b Fernando			18
P. Collingwood c Sangakkara b Fernando		16
Ravi Bopara lbw b Jayasuriya			34
Matthew Prior b Muralitharan			63
Ryan Sidebottom lbw b Muralitharan		 1
Matthew Hoggard b Malinga			 8
Monty Panesar not out				 2
EXTRAS: (5b, 9lb, 11nb)				25

TOTAL: (all out)				261
Overs: 94. Batting time: 384 minutes.
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-4, 2-22, 3-27, 4-55, 5-90, 6-139,
	 	 7-248,	8-249, 9-253.
BOWLING: Chaminda Vaas 17-3-56-3 (5nb), Lasith Malinga 15-3-39-1 (4nb),
 	 Muttiah Muralitharan 36-12-85-3 (1nb), Sanath Jayasuriya 14-6-28-1, 
	 Dilhara Fernando 12-1-39-2 (1nb).