First Part Of The England Task Accomplished

 

 

Cricket 2014

 

First Part of the Task Accomplished

 

June 21^st 2014

 

England could say that it was mission accomplished at the end of the day, although the route to get there was an odd one. Sangakkara was given four lives as he held the Sri Lanka innings together. At one point it looked as if England’s decision to insert could be a disaster. However, 257ao and 36-0 in reply looks pretty good and, if you had not followed the action, you might think that it was one-way traffic.

Had England taken their chances, Sri Lanka would not have reached 150. Some were tough, but of the kind that often does come off. One was a Pythonesque sequence: catch ball, try to throw up ball to celebrate, fumble and drop ball, look like an idiot. Memorably it happened to Mike Gatting against Australia. On this occasion the fielder did not have the excuse of a cheese and pickle sandwich belly to impede him and, protected by the gloves, left the bewildered commentators trying to work out just how the ball had slipped out and fallen to the floor.

Once again, the killer for Sri Lanka was the “6 out, all out” formula that they applied twice at Lords. At 228-5, with Sangakkara and Chandimal well set, 330+ looked a distinct possibility and Geoff Boycott was warning darkly that the bigger the total, the more likely that England’s inexperienced line-up would struggle to match it. Four wickets for one run in nine balls from Broad and Plunkett left the innings in ruins. As at Lords, the last pair were expected to come to the rescue and duly showed some of their colleagues how to bat.

Stuart Broad comes in for a great deal of criticism. Some of it is his own fault: he has got himself a bad name for petulant displays and immaturity on the field. Some of it is simply his nationality – racism has come back into the game and is high-profile has made him an easy target. But part of it is his success. Many England fans do not regard him as one of the five best seam bowlers in the country and chafe at his selection as soon as he has a couple of poor games. The reality is though that he came off for England time and again in difficult situations: at Trent Bridge and Chester-le-Street, in Australia and, yesterday, with Sri Lanka threatening to post a winning score. He removed Sangakkara with the last ball of the 63^rd over. Fourth ball of the next over, Plunkett, bowling frighteningly fast, removed Prasad. First ball of the 65^th over, Broad added Chandimal, with the Sri Lankan dressing room in full panic. Second ball of the 65^th over, Eranga edged to Prior. The field was set for the hat-trick ball and Pradeep straight-batted it away. Disappointment for Broad until, at the end of the over, the ground announcer just happened to mention that Stuart Broad had become one of just a handful of bowlers to take two hat-tricks in Test cricket.

Stuart Broad with his dander up and bowling straight and full, can be a frightening proposition.

The best news for England though was that Liam Plunkett was not asked to pepper the middle of the pitch. Fast, straight and full was more than most of the Sri Lankans could handle. I said it in the 4^th innings at Lords and wonder if, had he been asked to bowl that way, England might not have won.

What is evident is that Sri Lanka have a serious issue with their batting. The middle order contains some brilliant players, but cannot score enough to compensate for the weakness of the opening pair and the total lack of fight of the bottom five when faced by fast bowling. To progress they either have to play on slow tracks that favour their spinners and hide their problem, in which case they will always struggle in England, Australia, New Zealand and, probably Pakistan, or they can try to spice-up their wickets and get used to facing pace. The seam attack is one of the better ones that they have brought to England with Pradeep around 90mph, so they would not suffer from giving their bowlers something to work with at home.

Although the last pair added 28 valuable runs, Plunkett finally got one through Pradeep for a well-deserved 5-for. There will be no more premature talk of dropping him.

For England the task now is to take advantage of the work of the bowlers. With no 50 opening partnership since Melbourne and no century opening partnership since Dunedin and both openers in need of runs, the first task was to reach the Close. Alistair Cook was lucky to manage it, with a low catch that may or may not have carried to Sangakkara who, with great honour and dignity, immediately signalled that he was unsure. Once the catch went to the TV umpire there was only one possible decision, but there is more than one expert who is sure that Cook was lucky.

Sam Robson looked unflustered and organised. Twice this season he has failed twice in a match and come back to make a century in the next innings. If he can do that a third time he will close the general flap about his position and, undoubtedly, help Alistair Cook to make a score. At very least, England need two fifties and a century partnership from their openers. A century for at least one of them would be even better.

Today is a day to bat and bat and bat and not throw away a strong position that had looked unlikely at Tea.