You don't see any difference in the situation of the game/ the pitch between day one at Lord's and this game? That's itstl.Steve Smith with a deep point/3rd man and plenty of men on the fence.
The Ashes: Australia's Steve Smith aims 'negative' jibe at England after day 1 dominance - Mirror Online
itstl
That's pretty incredible considering Murali.Sri Lanka have never defended a target of less than 167 and have only defended a target under 200 twice in 27 attempts
Team records | Test matches | Cricinfo Statsguru | ESPN Cricinfo
They did well to avoid conceding a big score there in 2004, that's pretty much the peak time of 'Jayawardene and Sangakkara bat for 8 weeks on concrete, then bowl Murali until his arm drops off' phase of Sri Lankan tactics
And both instances where they won, they didn't even have murali. Fatty Herath won it for them.That's pretty incredible considering Murali.
An extremely flat pitch when the opposition is flying, vs a harder to bat on pitch when opposition are 100 ahead with 6 wickets left (roughly when the field went out).You don't see any difference in the situation of the game/ the pitch between day one at Lord's and this game? That's itstl.
It's becoming official, boys:And both instances where they won, they didn't even have murali. Fatty Herath won it for them.
Warne is a drug cheat and Murali a chucker. All hail Anil Kumble.
Anil Kumble threatened to abandon tour and lied to save Harbhajan. All hail Rangana Herath.
I for one welcome the crowning of the new king, Fatty Herath
I guess we have pretty different approaches to it. This bloke's playing an epic knock and the partnership was cruising along pretty well. As you say, it's not an easy pitch to bat on so far. They were >100 ahead on a surface where runs are hard to come by. Leaving the field up and letting the set batsmen thread boundaries through it sees the lead escalate at a faster rate IMO. And a lead of 180 is defendable against this Australian batting line up, 220 I'd reckon it's Even Stevens.An extremely flat pitch when the opposition is flying, vs a harder to bat on pitch when opposition are 100 ahead with 6 wickets left (roughly when the field went out).
Would argue England's more defensive response was probably more justified. I think Smith has given away to many easy singles here.