England’s seamers held sway yesterday, aided and abetted by a damp pitch but more pertinently by Sri Lankan batting that crossed the boundary from careless into reckless. The tourists are used to making scores over 500 but on a day shortened by 28 overs because of early rain and later showers they were bundled out for 162, their lowest first innings in 18 months and as many matches since they made 95 against South Africa in Cape Town.
With the honourable exception of Mahela Jayawardene, who played exquisitely for 47 and could do little about his dismissal, it was not the cleverest cricket from Sri Lanka. England’s pace attack upped their performance after the dismal effort at Lord’s and shared the wickets.
Nothing encapsulated the day more than the demise of the Sri Lankan’s Kumar Sangakkara, who flung himself and his bat at a wide delivery and edged it to Alec Stewart behind the stumps. It gave Stewart his 200th victim as keeper.
England were left with seven overs to bat, a ticklish prospect for Marcus Trescothic and Michael Vaughan which did not go entirely without incident. Muttiah Muralitharan beat Vaughan with his first delivery, then had him dropped at slip by Jayawardene four balls later, a sharp but catchable chance. England resume today on 24 without loss.
The heavy rain first thing washed out the morning session, delaying the announcement of the sides, with England no doubt the more eager to hear the opposition’s intentions because of Muralitharan. England themselves made two changes from the first Test, replacing Dominic Cork with Alex Tudor and bringing Ashley Giles in for John Crawley.
If the outcome of the toss had proved arbitrary at Lord’s, this one was important and, to nobody’s surprise more than the England captain, he won it and had no hesitation in asking the visitors to bat.
Andy Caddick was the pick of the bowlers, allowed by the conditions to revert to a more natural length for him and hitting the pitch harder as a result. He deserved his three wickets and perhaps better.
Matthew Hoggard improved as the day progressed, tense at the start again but loosening up as the wickets fell and the pressure eased.
Tudor’s return was a partial success, for he has work to do yet on straightening his leap into the crease and producing a more consistent line. The leap costs him momentum, as it did Devon Malcolm. But after an indifferent first spell he returned to take wickets with the first and fifth ball of a new spell.
Only when Sangakkara and Jayawardene were adding 53 for the third wicket did the batsmen have the measure of the bowling, accumulating steadily by using the errors in line created by the combination of left- and right-hander. As ever Jayawardene was immaculate off his legs and he hit seven boundaries before reaching out at a perfectly pitched seamer from Caddick and edging to Andy Flintoff at second slip, who accepted the first of two well-taken chances.
