Prince EWS
Global Moderator
Arguably Prior's best test as well. I'm aware he got a duck in the first innings but his second innings effort really was admirable and he's kept better than I've seen him in his career thus far too.
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***Official*** England in Sri Lanka
- Thread starter JASON
- Start date
Richard
Cricket Web Staff Member
TBF and TBH, I don't think the Cooks, Vaughans and Pietersens did a hell of a lot wrong. Don't reckon Bell or Prior would have survived the sort of deliveries they got.
Murali will presumably bowl to the end now.
Prince EWS
Global Moderator
Vaughan's shot in the second innings was worse than you seem to think, IMO. The ball didn't really do much at all and he just put the bat out there; he really didn't need to be playing at it and it was a lazy shot AFAIC. Same goes for Cook to some degree.
Richard
Cricket Web Staff Member
Sidebottom gone, can't really expect him to be able to read the Wrong-'Un when most top-order batsmen can't. But there was an inside-edge. Almost feel it's a bit of poetic-justice when there's the sort of blatant time-wasting we just had with Hoggard and the injury.
If Murali wins this Test having been about as close to down-and-out as he ever is, it will be one hell of an achievement.
If Murali wins this Test having been about as close to down-and-out as he ever is, it will be one hell of an achievement.
Richard
Cricket Web Staff Member
Hmm, disagree TBH that they didn't need to play - Vaughan had already faced several inswingers, and Cook's was an outswinger after he'd been lbw to the straight one in the first-innings.
Shots look lazy ATT TBH, it only ever looks bad when they get nicked. Look carefully - I reckon you'll see that was with little more conviction than most standard defensive-strokes.
biased indian
International Coach
Any body watching the game..how is the light ???
sideshowtim
Banned
Awful umpiring.
If Koertzen was dumped for a few games for the decision on Sangakkara which came at a less crucial time for Sri Lanka, surely Rauf must be sacked for such an awful decision which could cost the English a draw...
If Koertzen was dumped for a few games for the decision on Sangakkara which came at a less crucial time for Sri Lanka, surely Rauf must be sacked for such an awful decision which could cost the English a draw...
BoyBrumby
Englishman
Slightly harsh on Sidebottom for mine; he's more of a ten-and-a-half.
Saw morning session highlights before I left for work; I concur with the consensus on here. KP got a practically unplayable delivery (looked in good touch too) & Colly had a brain freeze. An upish drive not what was required in the situation.
Listened to TMS on drive to work again (until LW again left @ 8.30 for Yesterday in Parliament, WTF?) and Hughes thought Bopara might've been a bit unlucky as it was touch-an-go whether he was outside the line, but deserved to be out for missing a ball like the one that dismissed him.
Fighting knocks from Bell & Prior, but now look to be in vain.
biased indian
International Coach
Koertzen was the umpire in the last game between ind and pak rite ????
chaminda_00
Hall of Fame Member
Finally, pretty poor performance IMO. Should have knocked them over before tea. Can't believe they let someone as dire as Prior score any runs. Oh well 1-0 and Tharanga should be in for the next Test. Hopefully Dilshan in for Muburak, but I'm not holding my breath.
Richard
Cricket Web Staff Member
Didn't have a problem with that myself, there were definately parts of the ball in-line and parts outside. If it'd been given not-out equally no-one could have moaned too much - it's one of those which could have gone either way. Only the most bitter of Englishmen are likely to be banging-on about it.
wpdavid
Hall of Fame Member
Well deserved by SL, if only because most of England's batting was so hopeless that they deserved absolutely nothing from this game. It's been said before, but Bell & Prior showed what was possible if you applied yourself on this wicket. If this marks some sort of breakthrough for those two then perhaps that will bring some good out of this performance. Beyond that, yet again, too many of our top 5 just weren't good enough for this level. Of course they received decent decent deliveries, but this is test cricket ffs.
And this was supposed to be our best bet, wasn't it? Heaven help us in the remaining tests, esp if KP & Hoggard are unavailable.
I wonder about Cook, tbh, who seems an absolute rabbit when facing a leftarmer nowadays. How many time has been dismissed for next-to-nothing by Vaas or one of the Indian leftarmers in the last few months?
And this was supposed to be our best bet, wasn't it? Heaven help us in the remaining tests, esp if KP & Hoggard are unavailable.
I wonder about Cook, tbh, who seems an absolute rabbit when facing a leftarmer nowadays. How many time has been dismissed for next-to-nothing by Vaas or one of the Indian leftarmers in the last few months?
The Sean
Cricketer Of The Year
I reckon they got it dead right with Sanga. No disrespect to Murali but it was by no means a road and he was always going to get a bag of wickets on that pitch, and to his credit he did exactly that.
Sangakarra though was just a different class - he held the first innings together while all around him fell, and then in the face of a deficit he played an absolute gem in the second to lead Sri Lanka to a matchwinning lead. It wasn't just the number of runs he scored either, it was the fact that he managed to make it look so much easier than any other batsman on either side while scoring those runs - the sheer quality of his play was brilliant.
I can't speak highly enough of the man at the moment - a fantastic cricketer.
Sangakarra though was just a different class - he held the first innings together while all around him fell, and then in the face of a deficit he played an absolute gem in the second to lead Sri Lanka to a matchwinning lead. It wasn't just the number of runs he scored either, it was the fact that he managed to make it look so much easier than any other batsman on either side while scoring those runs - the sheer quality of his play was brilliant.
I can't speak highly enough of the man at the moment - a fantastic cricketer.
Woodster
International Captain
It does appear to be a steep learning curve for Cook at the moment, I think it is more the amount of times he has been out LBW that is the biggest problem. Indian left armers only contributed to two of his dismissals out of six in the recent Indian series, but he was out lbw around four times.
Something for him to work on with regards his technique, but he is still a top class player who will make the necessary adjustments and ultimately be a better player for it.
Richard
Cricket Web Staff Member
Strictly speaking TBH he didn't - the deficit was wiped-off by the time he came to the crease.
I do wonder, though, how different things might have been had that lbw in the first-innings been given. The drop in the second- wasn't likely to have made that much of an impact, but even there you never know - looking at what happened afterwards it's possible we'd have ended-up chasing 300 or so, which might have been less OOTQ than it ended-up being.