SRI LANKA MAKE HISTORY AS ENGLANDS' WOES CONTINUE
to Austrailia he was accused allowing the game to pass him by, being a reactive captain rather than a proactive captain, a change from the previous regime, while Sri Lanka were expected to be a tough test, it was expected that England would get back to winning ways.
The first test was a fantastic game of cricket, a game that came down right to the final ball of the game. When England walked out to bat on the first day the prospect of a big score seemed a million miles away when they found themselves 120-4, however Joe Root, Moeen Ali and Matt Prior all fought to build an intimidating total. It should be made very clear that the innings Root built was superb, and one of sheer determination.
England declared on 575-9, and had high hopes of claiming a number of early wickets, and the hopes were raised when Chris Jordan claimed his first test wicket, Karunaratne with the score on 54. However, the guy walking to the wicket is one of the best batsmen in world cricket, Kumar Sangakkara, and had so far not registered three figures at Lords. The stage was set for him to have his name put upon the honors board and he didn’t disappoint, going on to make 147 before being caught behind off the bowling of Ali.
His innings had given the Sri Lankans the position to push on and try and gain the upper hand and when captain, Angelo Mathews walked to the crease he had every intention of doing just that making 102 off just 172 balls. England eventually bowled the Sri Lankans out for 453, and with their game in the grasp they began to struggle in the second innings. Six batsmen, Robson, Cook, Root, Ali, Bell, Prior all failed to score 30 runs, while Gary Ballance stood strong at the other end recording his first test century, supported well by Broad and Jordan.
This was it, England had a chance to grab the game and in the process, grab the win. However going back to the question about Cooks captaincy and his ability to be proactive, it was massively shown up here. England began well, taking the first wicket for just 25 runs, however after that the fielding positions appeared to be made in the hope that a batsmen would make a mistake rather than trying to force one. The bowling changes were poor, and with the lack of a front line spinner it meant the over rate was beyond dreadful. However, like I said it all came down to the last ball.
However the big drama was on the penultimate ball. Stuart Broad hit Pradeep on the pads, the England players appealed and the umpire gave him out, however that ever faithful review system came to the rescue as the replays should an inside edge before hitting the pads, and as if that wasn’t bad enough the final ball produced an outside edge which fall agonizingly short of the slips.
BY Paul Hampton
For the first time in their history, Sri Lanka recorded a test series win in England. The summer started with high expectations, new faces in an England team that was desperate to bounce back following a very disappointing winter in Australia. Debutants Sam Robson, Moeen Ali and Chris Jordan all brought much excitement with them as did the recall of Yorkshire fast bowler Liam Plunkett.
The one question however was could Alastair Cook change his captaincy style? During the defeat