Penultimate ball drama rewrites Sri Lankan Test cricket history in England
Sri Lanka cricket team led by Angelo Mathews rewrote history books when they won their 1st ever Test match series in England after beating the hosts by 100 runs in the 2nd Test concluded at Leeds yesterday.
Sri Lanka’s previous Test win over England in their own den was in 2006 at Trent Bridge when Muttiah Muralitharan took a 11 wicket match bag to produce a memorable 134 run win in the one-off match England afforded to Sri Lanka. On the 24th of June 2014, the Sri Lankans pulled off a nail-biting Test match win where uplifting team work and dedication by all the players saw the tiny island accomplish one of the greatest moments in their cricket.
Day 5 started with Sri Lanka needing 5 wickets to win with a lead of 293 and 90 overs to play with. Against all odds, England staged a brilliant rearguard effort which almost saved the game for the hosts. Sri Lanka threw all but the kitchen sink at the last pair of Poms, with the two skippering heads of Mathews and Jayawardena working in tandem to secure this piece of history.
In the last over, four balls of Shaminda Eranga were fended off by a resolute Anderson, but the fifth was banged in short and the ball ballooned from his glove to Rangana Herath who was sent across from gully to leg gully just the previous ball, to scalp the final wicket. As the catch was safely netted, the Sri Lankan team broke off in to leaps of ecstasy running around the park in a mad frenzy only to end up in a ‘pile up’ on each other; such was the celebration. At home, crackers were reported as was the night vigil of discussions and cajoling via social media and around the television sets continued to into the ‘wee’ hours of the morning. It was that important to Sri Lanka.
England, chasing a notional target of 350, attempted to bat out the final day to draw the series with a little help from the Yorkshire weather when rain forced an early lunch. Moeen Ali scored an impressive and gritty maiden Test century with support from last man Anderson who survived for 20 overs in the company of Moeen Ali only to be inconsolably dismissed with two balls to spare for the end of the match. Moeen’s knock of 108 came in 281 balls while Anderson lasted 55 balls without scoring a single run. Joe Root and Moeen Ali negotiated the 1st session of the last day as they put on 67 runs batting out over 200 deliveries.
Without a question Sri Lanka deserved to win the match, but England deserve credit for the manner in which they battled through the day after such a horrendous last session on day 4 evening. Dhammika Prasad was the chief destroyer of the England 2nd innings as he captured 5 scalps for 50 runs in a brilliant spell of fast bowling in which four of his wickets came on the evening of day four.
Sri Lanka team celebrates with the series trophy after winning the second test on the fifth day of the second Test cricket match between England and Sri Lanka ©AFP
Earlier in the Test match, England won the toss and elected to field. Right arm fast bowler, Liam Plunkett took his best figures in the longer format of the game and Stuart Broad captured his second Test hat-trick as Sri Lanka were bowled out for 257 by England at Headingley on day 1. Broad, who previously took a hat-trick against India at Trent Bridge in 2011, became the first England bowler, and only the fourth in all, to perform the feat twice in Tests, when he removed Kumar Sangakkara (79), Dinesh Chandimal (45) and Shaminda Eranga (0) with successive deliveries split across two overs. Apart of Sangakkara, no other batsman looked comfortable batting against the English seamers on a Leeds surface which had more life over it for the fast bowlers than at Lord’s.
England’s 1st innings was revolved around an elegant maiden Test century by Australian born Sam Robson as the right handed opening batsman got his team to a comfortable position at one stage before Sri Lanka hit back strongly to reduce the England lead only to 108 runs. Sam Robson scored 127 runs in 253 deliveries with 15 fours and 1 six. England were 311 for 3 wickets at one stage and Sri Lankan skipper Angelo Mathews combined together with Shaminda Eranga to take out the final 7 Englishmen for just 54 runs as the pendulum of momentum of the game shifted towards Sri Lanka’s side.
Sri Lankan openers negotiated 20 overs which signaled Sri Lanka’s turnaround of the 2nd Test match. Dimuth Karunarathne fought hard for his 45 runs but Sri Lanka’s batting superstar Kumar Sangakkara became only the fourth batsman in history to make scores of fifty or more in seven successive Test innings when he reached his fifty. Mahela Jayawardene showed courage and signs of returning to his form when he manipulated the England bowling attack for a well compiled 79 runs in 168 balls but the game changing knock came through skipper Angelo Mathews’ bat.
Mathews played out one of the greatest captain’s knocks witnessed as the whole state of the game shifted towards Sri Lanka. His career-best innings of 160 utterly changed the course of the match. It was only his fourth century in 40 Tests but third since he became captain last year and it meant the all-rounder surpassed his 157 not out against Pakistan at Abu Dhabi last year.
Mathews was losing partners at one time before he found an able partner in Rangana Herath for the 8th wicket. They put on the best partnership of the match, not by the number of runs involved, but by the situation in which they built up this match winning stand of 149 runs. Rangana Herath’s cameo knock of 48 gave the freedom and free-stroking license to Mathews to boost up the run-rate as Sri Lanka posted 457 runs for the 2nd innings.
Sri Lankans fought valiantly to achieve this great feat of securing yet another trophy in 2014 which is by far one of the most successful years for Sri Lankan Cricket. All the 11 players gave their hearts out to win the 2nd Test and show character against the new look England side which still lacks the winning formula.
Maheja Jayawardena was quoted saying “Their idea of hurting us and hitting us on the head probably doesn’t work,”
“If you’re getting that good length up front, getting the ball to do a bit and being patient, one way or another people will nick it.”
His amused tongue in the cheek bombast comes after the visiting side stood firm against a barrage of bodyline bowling and Jayawardena’s lesson to those who in fact taught the game to the world, is that they should not have got carried away with the pitch and instead have tried doing what his bowlers did.
Sri Lanka taught its old master more than a thing or two about ‘test’ cricket – a nation which is virtually starved off while the rich and powerful enjoy larger bits of the ‘test’ portion.
Chief scores:
Sri Lanka (1st Inn) – 257 all out in 69.5 overs : Kumar Sangakkara 79; Liam Plunkett 5-64, Stuart Broad 3-46.
England (1st Inn) – 365 all out in 115.5 overs : Sam Robson 127, Gary Ballance 74, Ian Bell 64; Angelo Mathews 4-44, Shaminda Eranga 4-93.
Sri Lanka (2nd Inn) – 457 all out in 132.5 overs : Angelo Mathews 160, Mahela Jayawardene 79, Kumar Sangakkara 55; Liam Plunkett 4-112, James Anderson 3-91.
England (2nd Inn) – 249 all out in 116.5 overs : Moeen Ali 108 no; Dhammika Prasad 5-50, Rangana Herath 3-59.
Match Result: Sri Lanka won by 100 runs
Series Result: Sri Lanka win the two-match series 1-0.
