*Official* England in Sri Lanka

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

Oooh. Believe me, you don't want to start that one again.

 

[marc71178]

This will be a tough target to reach, but certainly not impossible. One of the top 4 will have to bat through the entire innings IMO. I would think Thorpe the most likely.

That would have to be Vaughan or Tresothick then! :P

 

[luckyeddie]

With the time left in the game (coupled with the fact that they are currently kicking their heels in the dressing-room) and the fact that the wicket is slow and low - and the outfield is quite slow as well - I would suggest that 300+ is now an impossibility, even without Murali.

Run-rates in this match have been below 2.5 runs per over consistently, and will in all likelihood remain so.

My money's on the draw (allowing for the fact that my continual rain-dances over the last few days are bound to pay off in the end)

 

[Mr Mxyzptlk]

That would have to be Vaughan or Tresothick then! :P

* bat through the innings.

 

[Neil Pickup]

IMO The best that we can hope for is a draw - 331 in 90 overs tomorrow rarely happens at the best of times and it's not going to against five spinners on that.

Keep raining...

And Murali doesn't chuck, it's an optical illusion. We've established this several times before (go read an old thread if you want the whining completely dismissed out of hand) and are not going into it here again.

 

[Rik]

England have bowled well today although Sangakarra's wicket was pretty awful running. Despite playing on a dustbowl however it does worry me that I've hardly seen anyone turn the ball off the straight, especially Batty. He got Attapatu because he made a fatal mistake, expecting turn!!Has he never seen English spinners bowl before???

Strange, when I saw some coverage of the 1st day, not because of the cricket but because Batty almost drowned, on the news, I saw him rip at least 5 balls square.

 

[luckyeddie]

Strange, when I saw some coverage of the 1st day, not because of the cricket but because Batty almost drowned, on the news, I saw him rip at least 5 balls square.

He made a few turn from very wide, but anything pretty well on the sticks, if they moved at all, went so slow.

 

[Tom Halsey]

90 overs tomorrow

Correction 105, to make up for rain, still impossible for England to win, but unfortunately that opens the door up for Sri Lanka a bit more, with Murali on that pitch

 

[Legglancer]

Cudos to Jayawardena who stood up and had the mettle to be counted. Personnaly I used to think the world of him untill it seemed that he had lost all confidence and was in a self destruct mode for the last year. Many apologies for dissing him earlier in this forum .... as penance I shall start eating my socks with gusto !

 

[IsuraE]

Yes, good knock from Jayardardene, but I still would have liked to see the Sri Lankan's bat more aggressively in the second innings. If England get 1 good partnership in the middle order, they will have less pressure on them and should get the draw. Seems like no team really wants to win, just avoid losing...

 

[luckyeddie]

Cudos to Jayawardena who stood up and had the mettle to be counted. Personnaly I used to think the world of him untill it seemed that he had lost all confidence and was in a self destruct mode for the last year. Many apologies for dissing him earlier in this forum .... as penance I shall start eating my socks with gusto !

They might taste better if you eat them with Pesto

 

[marc71178]

Correction 105, to make up for rain, still impossible for England to win, but unfortunately that opens the door up for Sri Lanka a bit more, with Murali on that pitch

I think the weather will be intervening again...

 

[Craig]

IMO Michael Vaughan needs to pull his fibnger out and make a big score even if it ends in a draw.

He makes too many starts and keeps throwing them away. The exception being the good balls and perhaps being a tad unlucky at times.

 

[Tim]

If the rain holds out & England can get to tea needing 100 runs to win, and Flintoff is still available then the impossible could become possible.

 

[Tim]

Well Butcher & Flintoff are out in quick succession so England will be looking for the draw now.

 

[luckyeddie]

Well Butcher & Flintoff are out in quick succession so England will be looking for the draw now.

If someone offered it to them yesterday they would have snatched their hands off.

 

[Tim]

Well Butcher & Collingwood were progressing well enough for awhile there where a spectacular innings from Flintoff could have miraculously won England the match.

 

[Linda]

Hmm, eddie, so this one is 22 pages and there have been 5 days of play. That equals 4.4 pages per day of play, compared to 41 per day of play.

So then, that rougly means Australia is 10 times more important than Sri Lanka. And also amits is posting on there.

 

[luckyeddie]

Hmm, eddie, so this one is 22 pages and there have been 5 days of play. That equals 4.4 pages per day of play, compared to 41 per day of play.

So then, that rougly means Australia is 10 times more important than Sri Lanka. And also amits is posting on there.

The India in Aussie thread started about 5 years before the first test, I think.

And yes, one silly post can generate a hundred or more responses refuting it.

 

[Tim]

I think this series should be interesting and England should win by quite a margin both in the tests and ODI's simply for the reason that the Sri Lanakens have quite a few problems in their squad

similar kind of talk that is coming from amits.
Sure, Sri Lanka looked ordinary v NZ but that still doesn't mean you can turn up & expect to beat them...Sri Lanka are just as tough at home as the other sides ranked 1-7.