***Official*** England in Sri Lanka

[Richard]

Bloody hell, SL have bowled shockingly poorly at Bopara.

 

[Richard]

Aaaaaaaaand Jayasuriya gets him with a straight ball. Murali to finish Prior off in no time if he gets a decent bowl at him for mine.

 

[JBH001]

Gone!

Jaya gets him. Be good if Murali is taken off and Vaas comes back on.

Or Murali could rip through the tail, which given Jason's recent remarks would be very ironic!

 

[wpdavid]

Ah, the joy of following England's cricket team - they never fail to surprise you with just how poor they can be, especially with a bat in their hands. Woke up this morning to a scorecard of 90 for 5, which you could understand if MM had ripped through them on a fifth day wicket. Instead, they've waved the white flag at Vaas & Fernando. Apart from KP, who had no chance, the rest of them had either been thoroughly insipid, or in the case of Collingwood, braindead. Partially yet another case of a touring team being massively under-cooked, but more to the point it was England not being interested when the going gets remotely tough. Only Bell seems to have shown the required commitment in this test, which I wouldn't have expected. No doubt he's got it out of his system now and he'll be as hopeless as the rest of them in the remaining 2 tests.

Nice for the Lankians, and congrats to them, but this has been pathetc from England's batsmen, and we see it all too often. Bring on the eggs & rotten fruit I say.

 

[Richard]

Ah, the joy of following England's cricket team - they never fail to surprise you with just how poor they can be, especially with a bat in their hands. Woke up this morning to a scorecard of 90 for 5, which you could understand if MM had ripped through them on a fifth day wicket. Instead, they've waved the white flag at Vaas & Fernando. Apart from KP, who had no chance, the rest of them had either been thoroughly insipid, or in the case of Collingwood, braindead.

Hmm, bit harsh on Vaas for my money. The Cook and Vaughan deliveries were no worse than some you'd think "fair enough" to someone for getting out to Murali.

Collingwood's the only one who's not genuinely been got out, and even his dismissal is a very familiar one, Stuart Clark caused him all sorts of problems with his driving off the front-foot on the off-side. He's never been able to hit that shot on the ground, his grip's too bottom-handed. A well-done to Scyld Berry for spotting that one.

Other than the Collingwood dismissal, blaming the batsmen TBH smacks of typical-Englishness really, in saying "we should have got out of this, they're not really good enough to get us out so it's all the batsmen's fault". Irritates the hell out of me, really, it was exactly the same when Maharoof bowled England out in the ODIs.

 

[Dissector]

Jaysuriya is probably not going to get his 100 wickets but it's nice to see him succeeding with bat and ball in his final test.

How has Murali been bowling this innings? He probably won't get his 10-for which is a bit surprising. Still, he did his job in the first innings.

 

[Richard]

Murali hasn't bowled poorly, though obviously less well than he can bowl. Could conceivably have had a wicket or 2, but just one of those cases of the cookie won't crumble your way every innings.

It'll be truly astonishing if he finishes wicketless.

 

[Prince EWS]

OK that definitely proves one thing that I have said all along Bangladesh's top 5 wickets are more valuable than the rest of the countries wickets 8-11

Again, not it doesn't. It proves they are harder to take, but it doesn't prove they are more valuable. The value of Hoggard's wicket lies in the fact that his runs could contribute to an England victory - Bangladesh have next to no chance of winning anyway so the value of their batsmen's wickets is lower, even if they are harder to take.

 

[wpdavid]

Hmm, bit harsh on Vaas for my money. The Cook and Vaughan deliveries were no worse than some you'd think "fair enough" to someone for getting out to Murali.

Collingwood's the only one who's not genuinely been got out, and even his dismissal is a very familiar one, Stuart Clark caused him all sorts of problems with his driving off the front-foot on the off-side. He's never been able to hit that shot on the ground, his grip's too bottom-handed. A well-done to Scyld Berry for spotting that one..

You didn't have to tell me the last bit - I was so impressed until then!

Other than the Collingwood dismissal, blaming the batsmen TBH smacks of typical-Englishness really, in saying "we should have got out of this, they're not really good enough to get us out so it's all the batsmen's fault". Irritates the hell out of me, really, it was exactly the same when Maharoof bowled England out in the ODIs.

It's a question of balance, I suppose. I rate Vaas very highly, and I don't want to be unfair to him. But our top order were, imo, insipid. Good sides would have put up more of a fight. We never do when life gets tricky.

 

[Richard]

Rain has been sighted in the area... ITSTL. But frankly I'll be sickened if SL get denied a victory here, as I was when England were at Lord's last year.

 

[JBH001]

Murali hasn't bowled poorly, though obviously less well than he can bowl. Could conceivably have had a wicket or 2, but just one of those cases of the cookie won't crumble your way every innings.

Maybe suffering a reaction from his first innings effort and from making the landmark?

It'll be truly astonishing if he finishes wicketless.

Aha. I have the feeling he wont get another in this test.

I also have a feeling that England may escape from this with a little help from Bell and the rain.

 

[Richard]

Maybe suffering a reaction from his first innings effort and from making the landmark?

It'd be a bit odd if so TBH, I was expecting him to go better once he'd reached said landmark. Reckon it's more that he just hasn't had the overs you might expect.

These skies are getting considerably darker. This will be madness if we escape here. As I speak it's pelting down in Exeter BTW.

 

[Richard]

Laaasith Maaalinga has to have made one of the most bizarre lbw appeals, shouting for one against Prior which was inside-edged to fine-leg without ever touching the pad.

Here's another reason I so hate lost overs costing results - already people are saying SL were being too conservative with the declaration. You CANNOT make declarations based on "it might rain", any more than you can pick teams on "a bowler might get injured".

 

[JBH001]

Overs? He has had about 18 already!

More than enough to prise out the Eng middle order. I have not been able to watch his bowling obviously, but from the cricinfo commentary he does not seem to have been all that flash. Tbh, I would be surprised if he did not have some sort of a reaction from getting the record in his country, on his home ground, and amidst all the fanfare and all that.

It could also just be the way the cookie crumbles, as it so often does in cricket.

 

[Richard]

If anything, it's been too many Wrong-'Uns. Since my last comment I've thought he's been unimpressive, at the time I made it I didn't think he'd bowled enough to comment too much.

50 for Bell, well played AGAIN. Standing-up where his more illustrious colleagues Cook and Pietersen (not entirely through their own fault, obviously) have not.

 

[Richard]

Ouch, that looks veeeeeeeeeerrrrrrry nasty.

 

[Richard]

Well, at Tea it suddenly looks like there might just be a legitimate great-escape. How odd.

 

[Jono]

They will draw this, mark my words.

 

[Woodster]

England somehow make it through to tea losing only one wicket in the afternoon session, well done so far to Bell and Prior, but still a very long time for these two to bat us to safety.

 

[Richard]

They will draw this, mark my words.

Haha, I'll not get confident until the light takes them off.

With four number-eleven batsmen in the side, it can all be over in 6 or 7 overs, if not even less.

Reckon Bell and Prior need to stay at least, at least, another 15 overs.