By Suneer Chowdhary
The English batsmen seem to be on course to have done their job in the fourth quarter-final against the Sri Lankan bowlers on a slower than usual Premadasa track, getting to 182 for 3 in their 42 overs. The Lankan bowlers pulled things back in the last few overs, including the batting Powerplay overs to restrict England to 228 in their 50 overs.
Published: Mar 26, 2011, 06:18 PM (IST)
Edited: Mar 26, 2011, 06:18 PM (IST)
Jonathan Trott plays a shot during his innings of 86 against Sri Lanka
By Suneer Chowdhary
Colombo: Mar 26, 2011
Winning the toss, they say, is half the battle won at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo. Australia found that this could well be a myth if the side does not bat well, in their game against Pakistan in the league stages.
The English batsmen, however, seem to be on course to have done their job in the fourth quarter-final against the Sri Lankan bowlers on a slower than usual Premadasa track, getting to 182 for 3 in their 42 overs. The Lankan bowlers pulled things back in the last few overs, including the batting Powerplay overs to restrict England to 228 in their 50 overs.
How the bowlers go about their business will go a long way in deciding which team will join India, Pakistan and New Zealand in the semi-finals.
England had gone into the game with the same team that played in their last league match against the West Indies while the Lankans, obviously understanding that the pitch was slower, played three spinners in place of Nuwan Kulasekera.
It was a surprise then, to see the Lankans open the bowling with Tillakaratne Dilshan, a part-time off-spinner at best. Andrew Strauss struggled through most part of his innings of 19 balls, scoring five before trying to slap a straight ball from Dilshan. He was bowled and England were 29 for one in eight.
Ian Bell opened the innings with Strauss in place of Matt Prior and till the time he was at the crease, he had got his silken touch going. He took 32 balls to get to 25, including three crisp boundaries before, like much of his career, he was involved in a soft dismissal. 31 for 2 in nine and England ran the risk of going down in a hurry.
It was England’s top-scoring batsman for the tournament, Jonathon Trott and his partnership with Ravi Bopara that brought the side back into the game. Interestingly, the understandably more dangerous spinners in Muralitharan, Mendis and Herath were handled well by the Trott-Bopara pair. Barring the running between the wickets, the two had a fruitful association of 64 runs, which came off 18 overs, accelerating towards the end of partnership.
Muralitharan finally had success when Bopara’s 56-ball vigil for 31 was ended to an lbw. England’s run-rate hadn’t touched the four-run mark thus far.
This brought the reliable Eoin Morgan to the crease, who in turn, ensured that the run-rate was accelerated in due course. Trott’s stability and consistency – he had four half centuries before this one – and Morgan’s urgency complemented each other well to ensure that they had set the perfect platform for the final slog.
Morgan had a fortuitous fifty going for him. He was dropped thrice, all three easy ones, sandwiched between an lbw that wasn’t referred to the third umpire on his way to a 55-ball 50. His luck finally ran out when the batting Powerplay was taken and he scooped a simple catch on the off-side.
Unfortunately for the English side, his dismissal brought Sri Lanka another wicket in Graeme Swann’s first ball duck. England struggled to score as many as they would have liked in the last few overs to end with a similar total to what New Zealand had against South Africa. The English side had scored only 23 runs in the five overs of the Batting Powerplay.
Brief Scores: England 229 for 6 in 50 overs (Jonathon Trott 86, Eoin Morgan 50; Muthiah Muralitharan 2 for 54, Angelo Mathwes 1 for 20, Tillakaratne Dilshan 1 for 25) vs Sri Lanka.
(Suneer is a Mumbai-based cricket writer and can be contacted at suneerchowdhary@gmail.com and Tweets here @suneerchowdhary)
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