Boost for Lankans before the big match
Elmo Rodrigopulle reporting, from England
The Sri Lankan cricketers turned the form book upside down, when they
came from behind to slap a 38-run defeat on the England Lions on the
final day of the four-day game here on Sunday. The Sri Lankans thus
gained their second victory which should give them the much needed
confidence to front up to England and not let them have their own way.
Of course the home team will go out favourites, playing at home and
after their Ashes success against Australia.
The Lankans owe their victory to Dilhara Fernando and Nuwan Pradeep
for their wonderful spells of seam and swing bowling that had the Lions
batsmen groping and all at sea. The Lions batsmen who made merry in the
first innings rattling up 493, with Eoin Morgan blasting a belligerent
193 which cemented his place in the England squad for the First Test,
just crumbled in their chase or victory.
When the Lankans were asked to bat a second time it looked as though
they were up against it, considering that the Lions were having four
penetrative seamers in Steve Finn, Jade Bernbach, Graham Onions and
Ajmal Shahzad.
But openers Tillekeratne Dilshan and Tharana Paranavithana gave them
a rollicking start putting on 200 for the first wicket that had the
Lions back pedalling. Both scored confidence boosting centuries. Set a
winning target of 222, the Lions seemed to have lost their bite and with
the two Fernandos firing goo pace and swing, just folded up to give the
Lankans were victory, that seemed unlikely when they were asked to
follow on.
The Sri Lankans will have two days to fine tune their team for the
First Test. The two batting great Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela
Jayawardena are sure to have a long knock about in the nets under the
watchful eyes of coach Stuart Law and batting coach Marvan Atapattu.
This game was of special significance for Eoin Morgan and Ravi Bopara
who were under the microscope of England selectors for a slot in England
squad. Morgan obliged while Bopara failed and Morgan got the nod.
“There was batting place available and Eoin played extremely well. So
there’s the opportunity for him to cement his place in the Test side.
The controlled innings he played just gave him the nod. “There were
number of reasons we made this decision, there was the character factor
and the quality of play,” said England selector Geoff Miller. It is now
up to Morgan to take it from there and make that batting spot all his
own. Derbyshire, Monday |
