Victory for England.
Victory for me.
That's right, I'm victorious. A few days ago I put my grand reputation on the line and said that Strauss and his boys would turn it around in the Colombo test. And that we needed to get behind them. I'm pretty sure after I tweeted the post to alot of the England team they not only just read the blog, but they were inspired by it, and it spurred them on. They thought, "We can't let this lad down, he will look like a mug if we don't perform."
I made a post about the first 3 days of play so I won't blab on about them. Lets just get to the tasty bit of the game, the juicy bit, the bit where all cricket fans sit down, lean forward, and watch fat English men with their tops off drinking beer and singing in the crowd. Days 4 and 5.
This is the bit everyone loves, this is the bit where the game is decided. Well, that's what normally happens...
The game had really already been decided by the English batsmen on day 3, as we all know, that the Sri Lankan batting line up (apart from M. Jayawardene, Samaraweera, Matthews and Sangakkarra) are pretty shocking and that they were never going to pose any really threat as long as these 4 players didn't post massive scores.
None of them did.
Thirimanne was the first to bite the dust. Caught by Strauss at slip of an Anderson ball. What an awful series this lad has had, 3, 6, 8 and 11. One double figure score in 4 innings is terrible. At least he has made some improvement as the series went on, so hats of to him!
Dilshan and Sangakkarra were left in the middle, two men out of form, out of touch, and after putting on a partnership of 40 odd, Dilshan was out after Swann started his six wicket haul with a ball which struck the edge of Dilshan's bat and the skipper Strauss took a simple catch at first slip. Then Sangakkarra went, to another edge that this time went to Prior from Swann's bowling.
This left Sri Lanka 125-4 and their main man in form was in, Mahela Jayawardene. What a cricket player this man has been in this series.
In the first test he showed the English batsmen how to score runs in Sri Lanka. He never really looked in danger of getting out, and I think I ended up drooling over my TV after some of his heavenly strokes.
I wish I could play cricket like this man has done in this test, Pietersen's innings was also world class. But it was more of a ODI innings, Mahela showed us all how test cricket should be played, where as KP showed us how we could bat in a test match like it was an ODI.
Also, Samaraweera was in the middle with him, and they put on a good partnership. Slowly plodding away with singles and two's, only a handful of boundaries were scored.
But then Swann struck, with Sri Lanka on 215, in the same over he got Samaraweera in a twist when the ball bit of the turf and spun into him, and then just two balls later Randiv fell, another brillaint ball.
Suddenly from an average position of 215-4 Sri Lanka found themselves 215-6. And things weren't looking so rosy.
Swann was on fire, spinning the ball for the sheer joy of it. He bowled unchanged for a long while, the poor guy must have had blisters on his fingers. But I'm sure he wouldn't have minded as he was bowling excellently. And he didn't have to wait long to get his next victim, and it was the guy I had been drooling over, Jayawardene. Edging it onto his pads and to Cook at short leg.
He was gone, and England were now firmly in the driving seat.
Matthews was in, I love this guy. He is a fantastic player, and I adore watching him play. He can play in all 3 forms of the game, and at just the age of 24 he has the potential to be a top star for his national side.
He was the last wicket to go after his 3 team members below him in the batting order could only gather 8 runs between them. Well done. Matthews was out for 46, and I would have liked him to get to his 50 because I think he is a good player.
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| Swann celebrates one of his wickets. |
278 was Sri Lanka's final score, with Swann by far the pick of the bowlers, with six wickets. He deserved it, he had worked hard and had put everything into bowling in the boiling heat. Congratulations Mr.Swann.
Strauss and Cook walked out needing only 90 odd to win. The barmy army were in fantastic spirits, and why shouldn't they be. After a poor winter tour of Dubai they deserved to enjoy a test victory. We buggered up what should have been an easy run chase in Dubai and this England side took a different approach this time around...
Although Strauss fell early for a duck (Quack) it was clear that this England side wanted to wrap this game up quickly and they got straight to it. Trott also got out cheap for 5 which made the score 32-2.
At this time Cook and Pietersen were in, it was a joy to watch. I only wish Blighty had an even bigger score to chase so we could have seen more of this beautiful attacking cricket. KP and Cooky were scoring easily and got to the total in the 20th over. Victory. Sweet sweet victory. This winter. At last.
Blighty had retained their title as number one test side in the world, for now anyway. The real test comes in the summer, even if they lost this test and dropped to number two in the world the number one spot would be contested against South Africa in England. This would be the real test. The best v the best. England v South Africa. Strauss v Smith. KP v De Villiers. Anderson v Steyn. Swann v Tahir and Broad v Kallis.
All these individual battles would decide the outcome.
May the best team win.
Cheers
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