Trott, Bell puts England on top
Elmo Rodrigopulle – Reporting From England
Swalec Stadium, Cardiff, Sunday
A big innings from Jonathan Trott unbeaten on 169 who was involved in
a stand of 89 with Ian Bell (55 not out) took England to 394 for 4 in
reply to Sri Lanka’s 400 on the fourth day of the First Npower Test
which appears to be meandering to a draw with a day left, thanks to the
fickle weather conditions at the time of our going to press, here today.
| Anderson ruled out
Elmo Rodrigopulle reporting, Swalec Stadium,
Cardiff, Sunday
In the gloom and rain that is
Cardiff, further gloom was heaped on the England team when it
was known that their most successful speed king James Anderson
will take no further part in the First Test against Sri Lanka.
Anderson was hobbling on the
field and not bowling at his best. He left the field, but was
forced to bat as night watchman when skipper Andrew Strauss was
dismissed in the last over of the second day.
Scans showed that the Lancashire
pacie had suffered grade one strain in his left side during Sri
Lanka’s first innings.
Anderson 28, is expected to be
sidelined for a minimum of two weeks, which will rule him out of
the Second Test beginning at Lord’s on Friday, and could
probably be out of the Third Test at the Rose Bowl, in
Southampton on June 16.
A England and Wales Cricket
Board statement confirmed he would continue batting in Cardiff
as it should not aggravate the injury. But Anderson did not bat
for long, edging Ajantha Mendis to Mahela Jayawardena in the
slips second over of the morning. |
Continuing from his overnight score of 125, losing Alastair Cook and
Kevin Pietersen in the process, Trott continued to grind the Sri Lankan
bowlers timing his shots well and executing some lovely cover and off
drives to perfection.
Ian Bell who hit the only six of the match early in his innings when
he lofted Rangana Herath over mid off, settled down to playing
confidently and scored when the opportunity presented itself. He brought
up his 50 in 88 balls with one six and 6 fours pulling Thissara Perera
to the mid wicket boundary for 4.
Cook and Trott started off with a bit more urgency in their approach,
than they did on Saturday, but Sri Lanka had success after 11 runs were
added when Cook trying to cut snicked Farveez Mahroof to Jayawardena
behind the stumps after adding four runs to his overnight score 298 for
3. The third wicket stand was 251 in 446 deliveries.
Kevin Pietersen who was in pads for a long time on the previous day
came in and after pushing around for 3, went LBW to Rangana Herath,
trying to cut a ball that kept low at 305. He was given out on a
referral with hot spot showing the ball had hit the pad first before
connecting with the bat. The time the third umpire took to give him out
another over could have been bowled.
After a long wait the action out in the middle finally got under way
at 2.30 pm in over cast and chilly conditions and a howling wind blowing
across the ground with 63 overs to be bowled with England on 287 for 2
with Alastair Cook on 129 and Jonathan Trott on 125 and their third
wicket stand worth 240 runs, trailing by 123.
To recap on Saturday’s play and it was complete domination by the
England batsmen Alastair Cook and Jonathan Trott. Both had a harvest of
runs in the Ashes series in Australia and after the early loss of night
watchman James Anderson took charge to bat the rest of the day.
It is a pity that the Lankan attack is nowhere near Test level. And
this was obvious again as the Lankan bowlers - pacies Suranga Lakmal,
Thissara Perera and Farveez Mahroof proving innocuous. The spinners -
Ajantha Mendis, Rangana Herath and Tillekeratne Dilshan were
ineffective. The bowlers were waiting for the batsmen to make mistakes
and did not have it in them to out think and lure them into mistakes.
Left hander Cook who started his run making act in Australia amassing
766 runs, took off from there and hoisted his 17th century. “It was nice
to score runs following Australia. You always wonder after a couple of
months off what will happen and to come back and score runs straightaway
is pleasing.
“It was quite stodgy at times and difficult to score, but I was
pleased with my application getting through those periods. You never
master the art of scoring runs but I have certainly improved on it,”
said Cook after the day’s play.
The rains seem to stick here in Cardiff. From the first day when the
Test began it has been marred by rain and several overs and playing time
have been lost much to the annoyance of the players, the officials and
the spectators.
Here in the media box, time is spent watching the ground staff
sweeping the water off the covers, removing it, putting them on when it
starts to drizzle and chatting to some English cricket writers, reading
some of the many newspapers which has given wide publicity to the
European Cup final won by Barcelona beating Manchester United 3-1 and
the allegations and counter allegations levelled by the two contestants
for the Presidency of FIFA Sepp Blatter and Mohamed Bin Hammam.
At the time of writing, Bin Hammam the Qatari and President of the
Asian Football Confederation has withdrawn his candidature saying that
the contest has drawn the game, the administration and FIFA into mud. On
two days the lights had to be switched on for play to proceed. It has
been frustrating here in media box having to sit and watch the rain
drops keep falling and no action taking place out in the middle.
Sri Lanka
1st Innings 400
ENGLAND
1st Innings
A. Strauss c M Jayawardene b Lakmal 20
A. Cook c P Jayawardene b Maharoof 133
J. Anderson c M Jayawardene b Mendis 1
J. Trott not out 169
K. Pietersen lbw b Herath 3
I. Bell not out 55
Extras (b5, lb2, nb5) 12
TOTAL (4 wkts, 113 overs, 473 mins) 394
Fall of wickets: 1-46 (Strauss), 2-47 (Anderson), 3-298 (Cook), 4-305 (Pietersen).
Bowling: Lakmal 19-4-54-1 (1nb); Perera 14-1-53-0; Dilshan 9-1-27-0; Maharoof 27-3-91-1 (3nb); Mendis 18-4-43-1 (1nb); Herath 26-4-69-1. |
