***Official*** England in Sri Lanka

[Laurrz]

going for England here...feel sorry for them given the recent events and umpiring decisions

Sidebottom is quite the menace

 

[Richard]

400 is still a looooooooong way away yet.

It's pretty remarkable that again Sidebottom has been involved in a 50-plus partnership. If SL let us get 400 they'll have bowled awfully. Guess circumstances have kinda conspired in Sidebottom's favour with Vaas and Maaalinga having to finish their spells just as he came to the crease. Maaalinga having 1 over before Lunch.

 

[sideshowtim]

Prior batting well and slowly inching England to 400 ....IMHO this is the crucial part of the innings and these runs could determine winning or losing even securing a draw...

400 plus and England cannot lose this Test...

England can lose a Test with 550 plus in the first innings

 

[Richard]

Why on Earth would anyone bother bowling short on this pitch? Complete and total waste of effort.

Full is the only way to go on this pitch - take the slowness out of the equation.

 

[JASON]

I expect SL's part time spinners Chamara Silva and Mubarak to come on soon and Murali to be taken off ...All credit to England for keeping Murali wicketless today he's topped 100 runs and gone well past 40 overs...

Also hoping Malinga to be brought back ...because he seemed to have bowled better today going by Cricinfo...

 

[tooextracool]

Why on Earth would anyone bother bowling short on this pitch? Complete and total waste of effort.

Full is the only way to go on this pitch - take the slowness out of the equation.

The pitch is hardly slow, its just very very flat. England have had an enormous amount of bad luck this game, without which they might have been in a far superior position.

 

[tooextracool]

England can lose a Test with 550 plus in the first innings

tbf the only place a team can score 500+ and still lose is in Australia. Australia in fact accomplished said feat in Adelaide 2003/04.

 

[chalky]

No, he wouldn't, not neccessarily.

I've seen several catches where the fielder has obviously doubted whether he's caught it or not, if the player claims it's pretty likely he thought he'd caught it.

You can never be a 100% certain but I believe the fielder must have known the ball hit the ground in this instance or at least had doubts. The ball didn't just graze the ground it was jammed in with quite a lot of pressure.

Something similer happend with Mike Hussey taking an iffy catch off Sangakkara in a recent test match. He indicated to the umpires that he wasn't certain if the catch was clean it was refered & the batsman given not out.

The way Silva celebrated he gave the impression there was no doubt about the catch, perhaps he had a bit of an adernalin rush & got caught up in the celebration.

 

[tooextracool]

I have to say that I am fairly surprised that Ryan Sidebottom has such an ordinary FC batting record. Seems like hes pretty solid tailend bat, far better than hoggard.

 

[Richard]

The pitch is hardly slow, its just very very flat.

It's slow enough that a tailender like Sidebottom can stand up and play a short delivery at 135kph down very easily. If a bowler bowls short, he's wasting his energy. Much better served aiming full.

 

[Richard]

You can never be a 100% certain but I believe the fielder must have known the ball hit the ground in this instance or at least had doubts. The ball didn't just graze the ground it was jammed in with quite a lot of pressure.

Something similer happend with Mike Hussey taking an iffy catch off Sangakkara in a recent test match. He indicated to the umpires that he wasn't certain if the catch was clean it was refered & the batsman given not out.

The way Silva celebrated he gave the impression there was no doubt about the catch, perhaps he had a bit of an adernalin rush & got caught up in the celebration.

The Hussey case was different to this one, though - this one was very unusual, really, you don't often see someone take a catch with the hand pointing downwards. He'd not know that he'd grounded it unless he was actually pushing down and could feel the pressure of the ground, which he didn't appear to be doing.

I don't imagine Silva had any idea he'd grounded it. Else I imagine he'd have shaken his head.

 

[Richard]

Can't fathom why Murali's only got 1 catcher here - possibly Prior dropped at short-leg, then edging through slip next ball at catchable height.

Would always, always have a slip and almost always a silly-point.

 

[Fiery]

With Prior doing well so far in his test career with the bat, does it mean that England are going to be stuck with a keeper with iron gloves for the next 8-10 years? Are they any good young keepers around?

 

[Richard]

Prior's wicketkeeping hasn't been as bad as some would suggest, it's only been 1 seriously bad game, and if he has games like that too often he won't be keeping wicket for very long.

And we've just had a 5-ball over.

 

[Evermind]

"Looks like a five-ball over there

117.5 Malinga to Prior, no run, full half volley, driven firmly to cover who is fairly deep but can still stop the single " - cricinfo

Are the umpires sleeping? Can't imagine what's going on, with all the dodgy decisions and the 5-ball overs.

 

[tooextracool]

Out of curiousity, is anyone aware as to why Tillekratne Dilshan was dropped?

 

[Richard]

Seems that Mubarak has influential family from what the Lankan posters on here say, because there's no way on Earth he's half the batsman Dilshan is.

 

[Laurrz]

feel sorry for dilshan, what a joke

 

[JASON]

Out of curiousity, is anyone aware as to why Tillekratne Dilshan was dropped?

Dilshan was dropped after the World cup and before the Bangladesh series while the old guard (Jayasuriya) was still around when the selectors realised he was not really making significant contributions with the bat and getting by in the Team making a few 30s and 40s every once in a while in Tests...and his failure to make a significant contribution when others failed ... So he actually got dropped as Chamara Silva's position became secure at 6 and Maharoof became considered in allrounder capacity at 7 ....(and subsequent selection of Prasanna J as specialist wicketkeeper at 7)

However since getting dropped and with the old guard (Jayasuriya and Atapattu) retiring this would be the right moment for him to come back...but if only for the fact he has not managed to score runs while away from the Test side to force himself in ...while pampered fools like Mubarak are given priority to pander to sections of SL Political interests and the influences of his father .....

 

[Richard]

Harmison top-edges a Full-Toss 1st ball to short-fine-leg. Enter MSP.