da dobrowin： Sri Lanka romped to a seven wicket victory against England at P
Charlie Austin18-Jan-2000Sri Lanka romped to a seven wicket victory against England at P. SaraGround in Colombo today. The English batsmen never got to grips withthe Sri Lankan spinners and were bowled out for just 123. In reply theSri Lankan top order tore into some pretty ordinary English bowling,scoring the 124 for three wickets in just 24.5 overs.The 1998 World Champions now have to beat India if they are to haveany chance of qualifying for the semi-finals. Unfortunately the mannerin which they played the spinners suggests that this will be veryunlikely.Meanwhile the Sri Lankans continue to grow in confidence. This selfconfidence is not unfounded either. They have a high quality and wellbalanced attack, classy batsmen and some electric fielders. Now clearfavourites for the World Cup, complacency may be their greatestthreat.Speaking afterwards to CricInfo the English coach, Tim Boon, wasfulsome in his praise of this young Sri Lankan side. “There was somevery exciting cricket by the Sri Lankan today with bat and ball.Their three exceptional spin bowlers put tremendous pressure on ourbatsmen. We did not show any mental resilience and continued to makeunforced errors. It going to take a very strong team to beatthese guys.”England were on the back foot in this match from the time Sri Lankawon the toss and decided to field. On a damp pitch and in brightsunshine the tall fast bowler, Nissanka, generated pace and bouncefrom his strong, sideways on action. In the first over he produced anunplayable delivery that bowled the unlucky Ian Bell (0). In hissecond over Jimmy Adams, who was surprised by the bounce, popped up acatch tamely to short leg.The left-handed Michael Carberry and Wallace then led a mini recoverywith a partnership of 56 in 15 overs. Carberry was the more aggressiveof the two, hitting Ian Daniels for two boundaries in his only over.However the introduction of spin immediately led to his downfall andcollapse of the middle order. Carberry (27) tried to use his feet tothe off-spin off Pushpakumara, missed by a country and was easilystumped by Peries. The leaden footed Phillips (3) was the next to go.Trapped on the back foot he was leg before to the left arm spin ofDammika.Dammika was the best bowler of the day. Varying his flight well andextracting significant turn, the English batsmen never got to gripswith him. Not prepared to use their feet, their downfall was somewhatpredictable. Dammika finished with 4-13 off his 9.2 overs.The patient vigil of Wallace (27) ended when he was also leg before toDammika. The inform Pratt and Captain Louden then briefly threatened arecovery. However with the score on 109 in the 27th over, Pratt ranout Louden (16), refusing his captain’s request for a quick single.A few balls later Pratt (17) charged the medium pace of Weeraratne andwas caught easily by Nissanka at mid-off. This singled the beginningof the end for England, the last four wickets falling for just 14runs.In reply the Sri Lankan displayed the flair for which they are souniversially admired. Both Daniels (46) and Mubarak (36), who came inafter Weeraratne (6) had been bowled by Harrison, punishedEngland loose bowling. A succession of half volleys were smashedto the boundary. The previously impressive Murtagh was savagelytreated. His second and third overs costing 25 runs.When the spinners came on the English players were treated to anexhibition on how to play spin bowling. Graeme Bridge firstdelivery set the tone when it was swatted dismissively over mid-wicketfor six. Neither Bridge nor Phillips was allowed to settle into arhythm. With both batsmen prepared to use their feet to get to theball the bowlers were forced to bowl shorter. When they did, they werethen worked square of the wicket.