 Sri Lanka win a cliff hanger against England
5th Apr 2007 12:56 IST
Agencies
Earlier, Mahmood snared a career best 4/50 and shared seven wickets with Lancashire teammate Flintoff (3/35) as England straitjacketed the Sri Lankan strokemakers, restricting them to 235.
Put into bat, Jayasuriya (25) – who became the most capped ODI player – threatened to go berserk but the England bowlers, to their credit, were not intimidated.
Jayasuriya top-edged Mahmood for a six over fine leg in the eighth over to reach 25 but the lanky seamer settled the score with the final ball of the over when the batsman inside-edged it onto his stumps.
Kumar Sangakkara (17) then joined Tharanga to push the score ahead but Mahmood foxed the Lankan stumper-batsman with a slower delivery and Paul Collingwood pouched the catch at backward point.
In Tharanga's sedate company, a fluent Jayawardene milked the English attack with consummate ease and there was nothing to worry for the Lankans as boundaries came at regular intervals.
But just when things threatened to go out of England's hands, Flintoff struck as Tharanga's top-edge found Pietersen at mid-on.
Tharanga put on a 91-run partnership with his captain and departed after a patient 62 that came off 103 balls with just two boundaries in it.
Collingwood then earned the vital breakthrough when he induced Jayawardene to take the aerial route only to be caught at midwicket. Jayawardene took 61 balls for a classy 56, which included four hits to the fence and with Tillakaratne Dilshan (5) joining him soon in the pavilion, the Lankans had lost their top half of the batting order with the score reading 193.
Mahmood and Flintoff then ran through the tailenders and Sri Lanka's last five wickets made a collective contribution of 42 runs. It was a disciplined show by the English bowlers, who conceded just 52 runs in the last 10 overs. |
