Sangakkara misses century

By Ted Corbett

KANDY, MARCH 10. England needs another 70 runs to win the second Test and square the series at 1-1 but there are only six wickets left and when the fifth day begins in the morning the pitch will be dusty and Muttiah Muralitharan able to turn his off breaks even vaster distances.

The last few deliveries may leave us all gasping and the margin is likely to be no greater than a couple of wickets; and after one of the oddest, most unpleasant Tests of recent experience there may be further shocks ahead. England is marginally the favourite but it will not be a great surprise if Sri Lanka goes to the third game in Colombo 2-0 ahead.

England was set to make 161 soon after tea and, although Mike Atherton and Marcus Trescothick began with stirring shots, Chaminda Vaas claimed both their wickets in the seventh over. He had Atherton for the fourth time in the series, caught at the wicket and Trescothick lbw. Again there was controversy since it looked as if the lbw delivery was heading down the leg side. From the moment Graham Thorpe, who made 59 in the first innings, played his first ball it looked as if he might guide England home but at the other end the captain Nasser Hussain was limping with a groin injury so naturally Thorpe had to take control and could not expect to maximise his ability to turn the ball into the gaps as he does in one-day cricket. Hussain kept his attacking instincts on a tight rein but at 86, just when it appeared that England might even claim the extra half hour,

Thorpe was caught behind off Murali for 46 and one run later Hussain caught behind off Vaas. If these two decisions were wrong they were within the normal range of umpiring mistakes. It is the huge number of errors outside those parameters that have caused this match to be such a grumbling, tetchy affair.

Sri Lanka restarted at 98 for six and most of us expected the game would finish before lunch. I am sorry to tell you that although only two wickets were needed to wrap up victory - as Zoyza and Murali are competitors for the No.11 spot - the umpiring faults that have directed the course of the match continued. One loud voice has called it at Sangakkara batted beautifully once again but he should have been out twice in the morning when, it seemed, there was a conspiracy among the

umpires to correct the bad work of the two Tests by giving no decisions at all. No wonder. Newspaper headlines again criticised the Sri Lankan B.C. Cooray's work, banners implied he wanted to leave for Britain and the crowd chanted unthinkable insults. He is about to retire and it is not surprising.

Hussain seemed to lose his grip. Ashley Giles bowled a vague line that left Sangakkara and Dharmasena untroubled, Gough got frustrated when his attempts to break through floundered and only Robert Croft kept his head as the runs and the overs ticked away. He ought to have been given Dharmasena's wicket, caught at silly point, and Craig White missed a caught and bowled off Sangakkara before, two overs short of lunch, Sangakkara leapt down the pitch in an attempt to reach his century with a six and was stumped.

There is a snooker adage that ``you cannot score a century with one shot'' and Sangakkara, a young lawyer from a family of legal people, will learn this lesson for he is a fine player with timing and daring. Lucky the team that has a wicket- keeper at No.3. For all the foolishness of his shot most ordinary watchers felt sorry for this talented batsman. His first Test century cannot be far away.

Sri Lanka batted on until tea when Gough's burst with the new ball brought the innings to an end. Dharamasena completed his fifty and Vaas fought off a siege soon after lunch but the end was always in sight when the new ball came and Gough treated them all with disdain even though Murali slogged him for six. Eight victims for 128 is a man-of-the-match performance and this newly- cheery, non-stop Gough thoroughly deserves that honour.

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