England shot out for 81

Chris DHAMBARAGE reporting from Galle

England were bowled out for their lowest total against Sri Lanka as the home team took a huge step towards completing a two nil series victory on day three of the third and final Test match continued at the reconstructed Galle International Stadium yesterday.

The England innings folded up for just 81 runs shortly before stumps while conceding a massive first innings lead of 418 runs. But Sri Lanka’s hopes of forcing an early victory appeared to be slipping away after a sudden downpour halted play for more than two and a half hours.

However left arm paceman Chanaka Welagedera making his debut struck twice in his eighth over to polish off the tail following the outstanding performance from the veteran Chaminda Vaas who caused the early damage with a four wicket haul.

England in their follow on could face just one over from Muttiah Muralitharan as they accepted the bad light early with 12 overs still remaining for the day.

England need a further 416 runs to avert the follow on while Sri Lanka need ten wickets to win the match and move into the second place of the International Cricket Council Rankings. England’s previous lowest total against Sri Lanka was 148 runs at the SSC ground, Maitland Place in December 2003..

England would have been really disappointed the manner they used the new ball as Sri Lanka showed them how things should be done with a clinical display of fast bowling.

They lost their captain Michael Vaughan among four pre-lunch wickets in a disastrous start to their first innings as they crumbled to 24 for four wickets by the interval. Vaughan misjudged a good delivery from Chaminda Vaas which shaped back into trap him plumb in front of middle-and-off in the third over of the innings.

Ian Bell was run out in the next over by Tillakaratne Dilshan’s direct hit at the non-striker’s end after Alastair Cook had dropped to the offside and initially called for a single. Left-arm paceman Vaas extracted a great amount of movement both in the air and off the pitch while making life miserable for the Englishmen.

But it was Lasith Malinga who sent down probably the best delivery of the day to get rid of Kevin Pieterson as a bouncer which caused the batsman to jump and sway evasively brushed his glove on its way through to wicketkeeper Prasanna Jayawardene.

Ravi Bopara, who spent the morning off the field with a cut to his left hand appeared impaired by the injury and he was unable to grip the bat properly as he offered a catch to mid-on. And Vaas continued to trouble the batsmen and claimed his fourth wicket of the innings in his next over when wicket keeper Matt Prior was bowled by a delivery that kept very low.

Earlier Sri Lanka declared their first innings at a commanding position of 499 for 8 midway through the morning session with skipper Mahela Jayawardene undefeated on 213 after reaching his fourth Test double-century. Sri Lanka really increased the tempo during the morning session after two days of consolidation with Jayawardene showing his class through some fine strikes down the ground and clever improvisation.

The elegant right hander continued to punish the England bowlers and also shared a seventh wicket partnership of 183 runs with Chaminda Vaas. In fact all rounder Vaas fell short by just ten runs from completing his second Test century while top edging Hoggard into the hands of Vaughn who held on to the catch in his second attempt.

The left hander was well set to reach the three figure mark having struck eleven boundaries during his 199 minute stay at the crease. But he certainly helped the Lankans to accelerate the scoring rate where they collected 115 runs from 20 overs before declaring the innings.

Vaas went after anything full in length and provided the bulk of the early scoring as he raced to his fifty from 92 deliveries.

Jayawardena lofted paceman Steve Harmison over mid off to bring up his fourth double century from 406 deliveries and with the help of 23 boundaries. He has so far accumulated a total of 474 runs in the current series at a stupendous average of 158.00 inclusive of two hundreds and one half century.

This is certainly the second best effort by a Sri Lankan batsman in a three Test series following Aravinda de Silva’s heroics in New Zealand in 1990/91 where he accumulated a total of 493 runs at an average of 98.60 inclusive of two hundreds and one half century..

Jayawardena’s unbeaten knock of 213 also equaled the highest individual score made by a Sri Lankan batsman against England.

Before that retired Sanath Jayasuriya held the record having scored 213 against England at the Oval in 1998. Sri Lanka’s total of 499 for 8 is also the fourth highest team total against England.

In addition the 183 run stand between Jayawardene and Vaas was easily Sri Lanka’s highest for the seventh wicket against England and followed a 170 run partnership between the same pair in the previous Test on this ground against South Africa three years ago.

SRI LANKA 1ST INNINGS
(Overnight 384-6)
M. Vandort lbw b Sidebottom 		18
U. Tharanga lbw b Harmison   		16
K. Sangakkara c Panesar b Harmison  	46
M. Jayawardene not out                 213
C. Silva c Bell b Harmison              01
T. Dilshan run out                   	84
P. Jayawardene c Prior b Bopara	 	00
C. Vaas c Vaughan b Hoggard   		90
L. Malinga b Collingwood		05

Extras: (b1, lb14, nb3, w8)		26
TOTAL (for eight wickets declared) 	499

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-34 (Vandort), 2-44 (Tharanga), 
3-132 (Sangakkara),4-138 (Silva), 5-287 (Dilshan),
6-287 (P. Jayawardene),7-470 (Vaas), 8-499 (Malinga).
BOWLING: Sidebottom 34-8-95-1 (w1), Hoggard 32-4-121-1 (w1),
Harmison 34-4-104-3 (nb3, w5), Panesar 26-3-76-0, Bopara 10-1-39-1, 
Collingwood 9.5-2-38-1 (w1), Pietersen 3-0-11-0.
Overs: 148.5

ENGLAND 1ST INNINGS
A. Cook c P. Jayawardene b Vaas   	13
M. Vaughan lbw b Vaas   		01
I. Bell run out              		01
K. Pietersen c P. Jayawardene b Malinga 01
P. Collingwood b Welegedara 		29
R. Bopara c Welegedara b Vaas  		00
M. Prior b Vaas                         04
R. Sidebottom c Dilshan b Muralitharan  11
S. Harmison not out			09
M. Hoggard c M. Jayawardene b Welegedara00
M. Panesar run out                      00

Extras: (b4, nb8)                      	12
TOTAL                                  	81
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-5 (Vaughan), 2-9 (Bell), 3-22 (Cook),
4-22 (Pietersen), 5-25 (Prior), 6-33 (Prior), 7-70 (Sidebottom),
8-72 (Collingwood), 9-72 (Hoggard).
BOWLING: Vaas 9.5-2-28-4 (nb4), Malinga 9-2-26-1 (nb2),
Welegedara 8-1-17-2 (nb2), Muralitharan 4-2-6-1.
Overs: 30.5

ENGLAND 2ND INNINGS

A. Cook not out                         01
M. Vaughan not out                      01

TOTAL (for no loss)                 	02
BOWLING: Muralitharan 1-0-2-0