Shah brings victory for England

Chris Dhambarage reporting from Dambulla

CRICKET: England brought an end to a series of defeats against Sri Lanka by registering a convincing 65 run victory in the second day night one day international played at the Rangiri Dambulla Stadium yesterday.

England’s success had a great amount of significance because they had beaten Sri Lanka after seven defeats in a row having last triumphed way back in 2004 in the ICC Champions Trophy tournament match at The Rose Bowl in Southampton. In addition this was only their second win in Sri Lanka from nine outings since 1982 and their first win at the Dambulla Stadium.

But more importantly England have leveled the five match series one all with the third one day international scheduled for Sunday at the same venue. This was certainly an improved performance from the Englishmen following their debacle on Monday at the same venue.

England looked completely a different outfit with both bat and ball as they completely outplayed the Lankans with a true professional performance. Their victory delayed to a certain extent by a stubborn last wicket partnership of 43 runs between Jehan Mubarak and Dilhara Fernando.

In fact Mubarak batting at number seven was the top scorer for Sri Lanka with an unbeaten 44 from 70 balls which included three boundaries. But the game was almost over for the Lankans from the moment they lost half of their side for just 90 runs in the 23rd over.

Sri Lanka of course made a dismal start to their run chase losing their first four wickets for just 38 runs by the 15th over. They were certainly up against some quality fast bowling as England exploited the conditions to good effect.

Opening bowler Ryan Sidebottom was the chief wrecker as he removed both openers Upul Tharanga and Sanath Jayasuriya quite cheaply. Stuart Broad was equally brilliant in his opening spell as he captured the key wickets of Kumar Sangakkara and Chamara Silva.

In fact wicket keeper batsman Sangakkara who was dropped even before he had opened his account looked completely out of form as he laboured for 34 deliveries for his contribution of 14 runs.

However Tillekeratne Dilshan made a desperate attempt to pull his side out of trouble by counter attacking from the very first delivery. He put on 52 runs for the fifth wicket with skipper Mahela Jayawardena that kept Sri Lanka’s hopes alive to a certain extent.

Dilshan hit a breezy run a ball 29 with three boundaries while Jayawardena contributed 23 runs with the same number of fours. But the pair was separated withina space of nine deliveries and with that any hopes of a Sri Lankan victory completely disappeared.

Earlier skipper Paul Collingwood hit a fighting knock of 42 and Owais Shah scored a superb half century as England recovered from an early setback to post a challenging 234 for 8 from their 50 overs. They were heading towards a total disaster for the second time in the series at one stage having slumped to 61 for 4 by the 19th over of the innings having won the toss and elected to bat first.

But they picked up some momentum during the latter stages and eventually ended with their highest total at this venue. England’s recovery was made possible largely due to a fifth wicket stand of 78 runs between skipper Paul Collingwood and Owais Shah. The pair soon realized the situation and worked their way mainly through singles and the occasional boundary.

No doubt the pressure was building on them as they were the last recognized pair in the England batting line up after the top four batsmen had completely disappointed. But Collingwood dropped anchor when his team needed him most and played a real captains innings with the aid of one six and two boundaries.

Owais Shah continued with the good work and kept one end occupied which helped England to reach their two hundred run mark by the 45th over. In fact the visitors played more aggressively during the last ten overs as they collected a total of 71 runs and took 39 runs from the last five overs.

Shah was the key player for England as he took most of the strike during this vital stage of the inning despite some good bowling from the Sri Lankan fast bowlers. Shah eventually fell in the last over of the innings for a well compiled 82 from92 deliveries with the help of five boundaries.

Shah had a very quite start to his innings and stroked just a solitary boundary while completing his fourth one day international half century. He also received good support from Graeme Swann with the pair adding fifty runs for the seventh wicket from just 52 balls.

Sri Lanka took the initiative as they restricted England to 83 for 4 during the half way stage of the innings. This was mainly due to some splendid seam bowling from Farveez Maharoof and Dilhara Fernando who were responsible for the early damage.

Maharoof who won the man of the match award during Sri Lanka’s 119 run victory in the first one day international on Monday continued with the same form capturing two key wickets in his opening spell.

The medium fast bowler struck with his second delivery of the game when he trapped Ian Bell in front of the wicket as early as in the eighth over of the innings.

He then deceived England opener Paul Mustard with another beautiful slow delivery. Mustard playing in his second one day international was well set to make a big score when he completely misread Maharoof’s slow delivery.

But it was the season campaigner Chaminda Vaas who gave Sri Lanka the early advantage by removing Alistair Cook in the third over. Sri Lanka virtually nailed the England batting during the first 20 overs as they captured the prize wicket of Kevin Pieterson cheaply.

The England star batsman of course never looked comfortable against some accurate bowling and laboured for nearly one hour while facing 41 deliveries for a painstaking 12 runs. The elegant right hander tried to take on the pace of Dilhara Fernando but was snapped up smartly by skipper Mahela Jayawardena at mid wicket.

ENGLAND
A. Cook b Jayawardene b Vaas		 1
P. Mustard c Mubarak b Maharoof		28
I. Bell lbw b Maharoof			18
K. Pietersen c Jayawardene b Fernando	12
P. Collingwood lbw b Fernando		42
O. Shah c Silva b Maharoof		82
R. Bopara b Dilshan			 1
G. Swann run out			34
S. Broad not out			 8
R. Sidebottom not out			 1
EXTRAS (lb2, w5)			 7
TOTAL (for eight wickets)		234

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-2 (Cook), 2-25 (Bell), 3-56 (Mustard), 4-61 (Pietersen),
		 5-139 (Collingwood), 6-142 (Bopara), 7-212 (Swann), 8-230 (Shah).
BOWLING: Vaas 8-1-27-1, Malinga 10-1-58-0 (w2), Maharoof 9-2-30-3,
	 Fernando 10-0-45-2 (w1), Dilshan 10-0-49-1 (w2), Jayasuriya 3-0-23-0.

SRI LANKA
U. Tharanga c Cook b Sidebottom		 8
S. Jayasuriya c Bell b Sidebottom	10
K. Sangakkara c Mustard b Broad		 9
M. Jayawardene c Pietersen b Collingwood23
C. Silva c Collingwood b Broad		 0
T. Dilshan b Swann			29
J. Mubarak not out			44
F. Maharoof c and b Swann		 6
C. Vaas c Mustard b Collingwood		 2
L. Malinga run out			 0
D. Fernando run out			20
EXTRAS (lb16, w2)			18
TOTAL					169

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-9 (Tharanga), 2-21 (Jayasuriya), 3-38 (Sangakkara),
		 4-38 (Silva), 5-90 (Dilshan), 6-90 (Jayawardene),
		 7-121 (Maharoof), 8-126 (Vaas), 9-126 (Malinga).
Bowling: Anderson 8-1-30-0, Sidebottom 10-2-23-2 (w2),
	 Broad 8.3-0-42-2, Collingwood 8-1-31-2, Swann 10-3-27-2.