Friday, May 31, 2002
Friday, May 31, 2002 |
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Cricket
By Ted Corbett
On a soft and variable pitch Andrew Caddick and Matthew Hoggard, who opened the bowling when the game finally got underway after lunch, had the Sri Lankan opening batsmen out for 23 but at the very point when he might have expected to ram home his advantage, Hussain lost control. Or so it seemed. After the second wicket fell in the tenth over Hussain then tried all his five main bowlers in the next eight overs while Kumar Sangakkara and Mahele Jayawardene rebuilt the Sri Lankan innings before three more batsmen were out for 24. There was no difficulty in suggesting this match would be England's in three days, the time it has taken to complete three of the last four Tests on this relaid square. To begin with a traditional British greeting was added to the Royal Golden Jubilee Edgbaston Centenary Test — prolonged rain. It kept the players off the field until after lunch while the small crowd had time to discuss the various options open to the England selectors — they eventually left out the new boy Simon Jones, Dominic Cork, their best bowler at Lord's and John Crawley who was supposed to be a deterrent if Muttiah Muralitharan played — and the chances of the weather forecasters being right. Once the dark clouds had cleared at noon the cricket reverted to a more normal course of events. Hussain had no hesitation in putting Sri Lanka in to bat; while Jayasuriya conceded that he would have followed the same course and that Murali would play. There was nothing remarkable about the first eight overs but in the ninth Marvan Atapattu, already looking ready to follow up his long innings at Lord's with another double hundred, edged a Hoggard outswinger to Alec Stewart. In the next over Jayasuriya followed an angled ball from Caddick and Stewart took the catch high diving left. So far so good, we thought; but in the next hour the cricket went berserk. I had been warned that the pitch — `liked a heavy tread carpet' might take turn — but although Ashley Giles was on in the 12th over he did not find turn that satisfied Hussain. Alex Tudor, back on the ground where he scored the best-remembered unbeaten 99, was bowling from the pavilion end by the 15th and Andrew Flintoff made it five when he bowled in the 18th. The fifty came up off his first ball, a wayward long hop, and 15 minutes before tea, with 76 on the board it seemed Sri Lanka were in charge. Not a bit of it. For reasons he will never understand - so what chance for the poor watcher — Sangakkara went down on one knee to drive a ball from Flintoff that was wide of his off stump and going wider to give Stewart not just his third successive catch but his 200th dismissal as a wicket-keeper. His work in his six days of Test cricket this summer prove their is a loud bark in the old dog yet but typically there was no flourish about the way he went beyond this landmark point. For the last 12 years he has been a model professional for England and, if he is a notch below greats like Ian Healy and Alan Knott, he is still competent to the last degree — an ordinary keeper raised to a high level by practice, industry and application and, with 7,502 runs, often England's only Test-class all-rounder. The madness was not finished. Aravinda de Silva, who is old enough to know better, attacked from the start and was, unsurprisingly, caught off a back-foot drive at backward point for ten. Jayawardene had 47 off 60 balls, an uncompromising determination to attack which had nothing to do with his dismissal, caught defending against a lifting ball from Caddick at second slip. Three overs later Caddick had Russell Arnold caught and at tea on the first day England was in a position to dominate the rest of the match.
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