Victory for Blighty

Victory for Strauss.

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!

After Prasad, the nightwatchman, fell for 34. A decent score for a guy who usually bats low down in the order.

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.

However, both were equally as good as eachother, but for different reasons...

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.

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

First 3 Days At Colombo

Were one down in the series, Sri Lanka win the toss, and choose to bat, sensible choice, it's hot, and momentum is on their side after winning the first test in this Just Retirement series. God knows why it is called the Just Retirement series, maybe the ICC are trying to send Strauss a message, who knows...

Day one, time for Sri Lanka's top three to redeem themselves after collapsing in the two innings' in the first test, they get to 21-0, it's not an awful start, the two openers don't look great, but at least they haven't lost two wickets in two balls like they did in the first test.

Oh wait, Dilshan and Sangakkara are both caught by Prior and Strauss respectively, Sangakkara goes for his second golden duck in this series, which lets face it, is terrible, but credit to Jimmy, he is the one that got them out, so if your reading Jimmy, take a bow.

But then Jayawardene strolled into the middle, cool, calm and collected. His team needed him to steady the ship, and my god didn't he did it fantastically well, a couple of people got out at the other end, but nobody cares about that, it was the Jayawardene show, good defence, hit the bad balls, and he played a lot of elegant strokes. He rolled past the 100 mark to hit his 31st century in tests with ease, before eventually getting out for 105. He walked off to a booming standing ovation from the crowd. Angelo Matthews and Samaraweera also deserve a mention, with tidy knocks of 57and 54. Sri Lanka finished all out for 275 after the tail didn’t wag at the start of day two.

Swann and Anderson were the pick of the bowlers, taken 7 wickets between them.

Then, a few minutes later, Strauss and Cook wander out into the middle, a lot of English fans are thinking all the hard work done by the bowlers could be undone by our useless batsmen because most of them are out of touch, but not me, in my last post I mentioned how everyone should get behind Strauss and the boys because the media had been on their backs constantly over if Strauss should be removed as captain because of his batting.

Strauss had obviously read my post and thought that he didn’t want to make me look like a fool, and so he pulled his finger out.

It started average, Strauss got a lucky break, but he soldiered on, and so did Cook and the 50 opening partnership was up. What a relief, England fans everywhere breathed a huge sigh of relief that we hadn’t cocked it up again!

And then a 100 partnership!!! It was marvellous, it hadn’t been as pretty as Strauss and Cook can be when they are in top nick, but it was scrappy, and they slowly grew in confidence.

But then Dilshan strikes, well he doesn’t really strike as in he bowled a unplayable ball, he bowls a short ball outside wide of off-stump for Strauss to pound away through point, but no, Strauss edges it behind to Jayawardene who thankfully takes the simple catch.

122-1.

And then Trott and Cook plod along for a bit, but when Cook got out at the start of day 3 and Pietersen came in is when an innings of pure class came on show in Colombo.

KP had a close shave when the ball flew over short leg, a missed opportunity for Sri Lanka, KP carried on regardless, a slower ball from Prasad which KP hits back over Prasad flies through his hands, a tough chance, a very tough chance, chin up Prasad.

He never looked back, Dilshan made a drama over KP changing his hands before he had bowled the ball (What a knob Dilshan) Dilshan was clearly in the wrong in my view, Pietersen has played the switch shot for many years and the ICC approve it, he only knows why he made a massive drama about it.

And the ball after KP was given a informal warning after the affair, he played a reserve sweep to bring up his 100, a slap in the face to Dilshan! A pretty decent celebration aswell! Pumping his fist in the air as he removes his helmet and laps up the applause, and I bet there was a bit of cursing under his breath to Dilshan aswell...



KP Celebrates his 21st Test Century

 He went on to make 151, of just 162 balls! His sweep looked second to none, hit 6 sixes! A remarkable amount in the test format of the game. So well done KP, you’ve done your self proud, he has been in dodgy form in test cricket in the winter and he has overcome this bad form to put England into a very commanding position in the match.

Samit Patel hit a slow 29 to plod England along, and the tail didn’t have much resistance to the likes of Herath, who got six wickets, it wasn’t an amazing bowling performance by Herath, but he was still the pick of the bowlers (Which wasn’t hard) and he got the job of getting wickets, if it wasn’t for him England could have gone on to get at least 500.

England were all out for 460. A lead of 185 runs.

If we don’t go on to level this two match series I will personally fly over to Sri Lanka and slap each England player round the face.

Cheers