Jayawardene's century puts Sri Lanka ahead

By Ted Corbett

COLOMBO, MARCH 25. A sublime innings from Mahela Jayawardene, full of delicate touches and late cuts made with the full blade of the bat, gave Sri Lanka a total of 226 for six in the second one-day international against England at the sweaty Premadesa Stadium tonight. It was an innings fit to win a series and crown a sequence against England that goes 61, 101, 78, 71, 11, 3, 101 not out; a regal procession of beautifully crafted scores.

What more is there to say about Jayawardene, save that he bears the signs of greatness in every felicitious stroke. Like all the great players he knows the value of the long slow shot down the vee; but he is also capable of the rustic pull, the bludgeon that smacks the ball hard through point and the cudgel that carries it out to deep mid wicket or, in the derisory term used by the English pro, into the no-man's land at cow corner, or slog alley. This afternoon we saw another side to this stylish run-machine. By the 40th over he was limping and we thought it might just be the draining, soggy warmth and a touch of cramp.

By the 45th he was pulled up short, dragging himself for a single and Russel Arnold came on as his runner. At this point Jayawardene showed that he has either great courage or the greed that is an added extra for the high-class batsman. He stayed at the crease and, using little or no footwork, drilled the ball to the boundary so that he not only took Sri Lanka from 180 to 226 in the last five overs but completed his own century off the final ball of the innings.

You would not expect to see a finer innings in any one-day game; it is a shame the pitch begrudged every run. What is the point in bringing thousands of spectators thousands of miles to watch a one-day game played on a pitch that is too slow to catch cold.

Stroke play was possible but only by the most patient batsman and once Sanath Jaysuriya was out second ball - bowled off an inside edge by Darren Gough - we knew that this would be an uphill struggle rather than a joy ride.

Ramesh Kaluwitharana was caught off Alan Mullally's second ball at 31 and then it was down to Marvan Atapattu and Jayawardene to give the scoreline substance.

Atapattu has survived the assault by television commentator which followed his double hundred at Galle and his subsequent failures and his 57 was the major part of 88 for the third wicket.

He is a considerable part of the Sri Lankan line-up whatever those opinionated English voices say and, since he must have heard what they said about his footwork, his defence and his limited ability, he has shown determination beyond the ordinary to continue. The rest did nothing except lend their support to Jayawardene but by the end of the innings it seemed that a 2-0 series success was in the Sri Lankan pocket

Marcus Trescothick and Andrew Flintoff both learned by the tenth over - back in the hutch at 35 - that the lack of pace in the pitch could trap anyone. Trescothick pulled a short ball straight up in the air and Flintoff gave Murali, at mid-on, another chance to show his acrobatic skills although, in contrast to his Dambulla dive, he had to turn an easy catch into a difficult one to prove that the Big Top is his natural home.

Graeme Hick went for 11 after another listless innings, the captain Graham Thorpe dabbed a dozen and then tried one dab too many and was caught at cover. Alec Stewart past fifty in the 31st over but at the final drinks interval with 15 overs left 110 were still needed.

Stewart was brilliantly caught, diving goalkeeper fashion, at mid-wicket by Jayawardene whose limp had vanished as completely as England's victory hopes. Two balls later Craig White was run out for nought, proving no man can be in luck for a whole winter.

Michael Vaughan was caught in the deep off Muttiah Muralitharan for 25 with 80 needed off the final eight overs, Robert Croft fell two runs later, Andrew Caddick at 157 and with the fireworks already popping Alan Mullally run out on 158 so that Sri Lanka won by 68 runs and the series by 2-0, a consolation for their Test defeat and a disappointment for England after its winter of success.

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