Consolation with commiserations

Written by HW SquadStats

Sunday, 14 October 2007

Having won a historic series away from home, it might sometimes become difficult to find the drive and motivation to fight the dead rubber out. And when you combine this with the fact that your rivals are going to be coming at you harder and more driven in order to avoid the humiliation of 4 back to back defeats at home, the odds are stacked against you. England, however, almost beat the odds before Dilhara Fernando knocked them down.

Sri Lanka got what they were looking for since the past three games; a quickfire start from Jayasuriya. The 26 off 18 balls looked promising before England got what they had been getting through the series; a consistent, accurate and effective performance from their bowlers. The troika of Anderson, Broad and Sidebottom have been the key forces behind keeping the Lankan batting under leash in the previous three games and they delivered, taking the Lankan top order between them. (Anderson 1, Sidebottom 2, Broad 3). More importantly, Panesar played an important role in ensuring that Swann wouldnt be missed much with 1 for 31 off his 3 overs, all in all restricting the Lankans to 211.

The general failure of Jayawardene, Jayasuriya and Sangakkara (barring the odd knock here and there) has been the key reason behind Lanka never getting a match-winning score in the last four games. That was again the case, with Silva (73) taking his side to a total that gave them something to bowl at.

Another dodgy area that had been hampering Lankan progress was the indifferent performance of the 4th and 5th bowlers, combined with the regular and consistent performance of the English middle and lower middle order. Fernando seemed to have decided that the did not want to depend on the 4th and 5th bowlers anymore, and took the English batting out almost all by himself. He picked up a career best 6 for 27, and with Vaas and Malingapicking up 2 each, they ensured that the part time bowlers wouldn't have to be bothered.

By and large, it is safe to say that much of the respect England lost after their 5-0 whitewash at home the last time these two played has been salvaged. On the whole, it hasn't been a great series for Lanka, but they will take heart in the fact that it was only a wicket or two that made the difference between 3-2 and 2-3, with a close finish in the 3rd ODI. However, what will hold ominous signs for them keeping the Test matches to come would be the fact that the English seamers are in great touch, and that Pietersen finally looks like he has found his rhythm. He only scored 28, but those came comfortably, and the shortage of runs would have only served to whet his appetite.

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