Saturday, Jun 15, 2002
Saturday, Jun 15, 2002 |
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Cricket
By Ted Corbett
Those three-hour delays make you lose concentration. He has grown up astonishingly since those tour days when he was apt to sink his sorrows in a bar. His assurance, after scores of 17, 105 and 94 in this series, acted as a spur to Stewart, not always the cleverest batsman against spin. He found room to punch Murali through the covers and take the score beyond 300 and then bring up the fifty stand as the new ball was taken. Sanath Jayusiriya noted the occasion by setting four men in the slip-gully circle but for all the cloud cover this day was no help to the medium pace men and a lifting ball was one that threatened the waistline rather than the chin. Stewart was hoping for a personal triumph on the ground where he has a Test average of 85 to "embarrass the selectors'' as he puts it. They are toying with the idea of bringing back James Foster but they may keep Stewart from the one-day tri-series. This innings is Stewart's highest of the series and the most controlled and, with Butcher both scoring runs and offering advice, the new ball hardly presented a worry line, much less a frown. Poor Sri Lanka. They looked just as drained, just as lacking in ideas as the day before, fumbled the ball just as often. They are a living argument for fewer international matches of all types and unless those now a-bed in Serendipity Island are much fresher their dreams of making the final of the one-day tournament will turn to nightmares. Rain, which had been falling throughout the afternoon, finally forced the players off the field at 339 for four after 13 overs costing 66 runs. Until the umpires consulted the spectators had watched without umbrellas, perhaps as a mark of sympathy for the two teams operating in such inclement conditions. Now they were all raised as quickly as the groundsmen put on the lightest covers and waited, knowledgeable Manchester men all, for the shower to clear. One of the features of the brief interlude of play was the way both men dealt with Dilhara Fernando's slower ball which has gone from an anonymous delivery to share the podium with Shane Warne's zooter, Darren Gough's yorker and those piecing throat balls Curtly Ambrose reserved for Graeme Hick. Prolonged television analysis, using pin-sharp pictures, has only one result. It helps batsmen pick the killer ball, destroys the bowler's faith in his tricks and means a secret lasts only until the end of the next slow-motion replay. If only Hick had watched TV more often. The rain stopped, the umbrellas were folded and the bell sounded for a restart. By now the clouds were blacker and the public light meter installed at Old Trafford by a famous scientist from the nearby Jodrell Bank observatory showed it was much darker. A few seconds after they reached the pitch the players retreated again as the rain drops grew heavier. Farce? Tragi-comedy more likely.
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