Bad taste for a sweet victory

Elmo Rodrigopulle - reporting From England

True, Sri Lanka won the Third one-day International at Lord’s on Sunday by six wickets to take two-one lead in the Five match NatWest series against England, but in so doing left a bad taste in the mouth, the manner in which victory was achieved.

True that it is the dream of every cricketer to score a century or leave some other milestone to be remembered at the holy land of cricket Lord’s, but a milestone would be appreciated, if the team and the country is given first consideration.

When Chandimal was nearing his century, it was not sport to watch Angelo Mathews play pat ball cricket and not take the singles. It was obvious that he was doing it to allow Chandimal to score a century and have his name etched in the boards at Lord’s.

England were bemused as Mathews, his team-mates personal glory before his country’s – and made sure Chandmal got to his ton before winning.

But what one saw, was not a happy sight of the Sri Lankan think tanks at the Lord’s balcony. That was because it was inexplicable what was happening out in the middle between Chandimal and Mathews.

Unable to watch the poor cricket by the two batsmen, instead of looking for victory, a message came out. The England players were far less generous which saw Kevin Pietersen remonstrating with the umpire when the messenger came out.

The umpire did not allow the message. Then Mathews asked for a new bat to be sent out. It looked ugly considering that the Lankans were waltzing to victory. It sure would have left skipper Dilshan embarrassed and red in the face.

Imagine Mathews scoring one from 21 balls to allow Chandimal make a century. Every time Mathews poked the ball, boos were heard from the crowd who were getting impatient watching the farce that was being enacted in the middle.

Both Mathews and Chandimal would certainly have got ear fulls from coach Stuart Law and skipper Dilshan after the game.

After the game Dilshan said: ‘At first I was disappointed with our two batsmen out there. But they are learning the game and they did it because a Lord’s hundred is special. And Angelo was only looking after his team-mate like family. We are a family unit’.

England captain who was watching the Chandimal- Mathews farce said: ‘I’ve never seen that before. It is clear what they were doing, but it was a bit strange.

‘They’re perfectly entitled to do that if they want, but it was slightly strange and you never know, the cricketing gods might look at that with a bit of disgust’.

That apart, Chandimal’s knock was a treat to watch after the dazzling display by Mahela Jayawardena who once again played a five star class innings, which inspired the 21-year old Chandimal put on show what he is capable of.

He cut. drove and pulled with disdain and the six he hit off Tim Bresnan to reach his century will be long remembered. Not every batsman is able to reach a century with a six. But that Chandimal did it, and did it at Lord’s is great.

Lord’s, Monday