One Of The Greatest Ever Test Finishes

 

 

Cricket 2014

 

Ninety Overs Not Quite Enough

 

June 17^th 2014

 

The cooler heads were saying last night that 350 would be more than enough and that England needed a few overs before the Close on the fourth day, were proved right. Although the Sri Lankan fans were bullish and some confidently predicted that their side would have a comfortable chase after Tea, the reality was that sustaining a run rate far above what they had achieved in the 1^st innings with batting conditions the at their best, was never a plausible proposition. The way that Sri Lanka had collapsed in their 1^st innings from 385-4 to 453ao was warning enough.

In the 2^nd innings the collapse was even more dramatic. At 123-1 Sri Lankan fans were licking their lips at the prospect of a record chase. At 201-9, surviving the last over was the limit of their ambitions and even then only achieved, first with DRS and then with luck. Eight wickets for 78 was a pretty devastating collapse on a pitch that still offered the bowlers very little, even more so when Tea was reached on 164-3 with Sangakkara well set and the RRR still under 5.

The end of the match must go down as one of the most dramatic ever. Edgbaston 2005 was extraordinary and controversial, this was  unbelievably more dramatic still. After a clatter of wickets either side of Tea, a twenty over partnership between captain Matthews and the injured wicket-keeper Jayawardene had taken Sri Lanka to the brink of safety. Twenty-four were added in twenty overs and one ball until, with the last ball of the 79^th over, Chris Jordan lived up to his reputation for making things happen. Before that delivery, which thudded into Jayawardene’s pads, just 67 balls remained to take five wickets: it all looked over. However, England’s confidence that the flimsy Sri Lankan tail could be blown away, even on an easy pitch, was more than justified.

67 balls to go – Jordan traps HAPW Jayawardene LBW. Last review used in vain. 194-6.

58 balls to go – Jordan takes the new ball. 198-6

42 balls to go – Broad gets Kulasekara LBW. 199-7.

19 balls to go – Matthews edges Anderson to Cook. 201-8.

6 balls to go – Herath edges a Broad bouncer and walks. Replays show that the hand was off the bat and so it was not out. 201-9.

2 balls to go – Umpire Reiffel gives Pradeep LBW to Broad. Review. Inside edge. NOT OUT!

1 ball to go – Pradeep edges to Jordan at 2^nd slip. Ball bounced just short. 201-9.

Quite apart from being a vindication of DRS – no one would have wanted England to win thanks to a bad umpiring decision – it was also the first time that the rule change topping-up reviews at 80 overs has changed a match result. Had Sri Lanka not topped-up their reviews, the decision would have to have stood.

For England, who have taken a fair bit of criticism in this Test, it was vindication.

For Sri Lanka, the alarm bells are ringing. The 2^nd Test is being played at Headingley, starting Friday. If Sri Lanka could only hang on in extremis on the deadest and most lifeless of Lords pitches, what chances do they have on a Headingley pitch known over the years for its friendliness to seam bowlers? To boot, they have lost their wicket keeper – although Jayawardene batted heroically yesterday and almost saved his side, he is being sent home as he is unable to keep wicket.

Although there was a point after lunch when Sri Lanka were in touch with the asking rate and had wickets in hand, it was always going to be too much. The RRR was rising steadily from its initial 4.33. With 55 overs to go it had passed 5 and was increasing faster as England kept a vice-like pressure on the scoring rate: if wickets started to fall, any remote thoughts of a run chase would disappear, as people were predicting confidently they would. By Tea the RRR was around 7 and half an hour after Tea was approaching 9 – it was never on.

Only twice in Test history had a side chased successfully a 4^th innings target of over 300 at a faster run rate than the asking rate for Sri Lanka: the 1984 West Indies had done it at Lords and Pakistan had scored 302-5 at Sharjah in January 2014 in 57.3 overs to beat Sri Lanka. Only four times has a side chased 300+ successfully at more than 4-an-over: these things rarely happen in other than Fantasy cricket, so it was always going to be a simple case of whether or not Sri Lanka could survive 90 overs.

England fans will always ask what might have been had the bowlers had an extra 5 overs. Possibly no wickets would have fallen on the fourth evening but, even if they had not, the Sri Lankan tail would have had to survive fifteen overs with the new ball rather than ten. We will never know how it might have changed the match.