Number 11, Nuwan Pradeep survived the final five deliveries of the final Stuart Broad over, including successfully reviewing an lbw decision on the penultimate ball and edging the last just short of slip to save the day for Sri Lanka as England came close to pulling off a stunning win in the 1st Test which concluded in a draw at Lord’s grounds.
Of all cricket’s three forms, only a Test match can produce drama such as this as resurgent England led by James Anderson came from nowhere in the final session of this memorable game to sniff a chance at victory. James Anderson’s burst of three wickets for one run either side of tea helped keep the outcome of this first Test in doubt to the very last ball, as the tourists clung on at 201 for nine in notional pursuit of a ground-record 390.
Captain Alastair Cook had set Sri Lanka 390 to win in 90 overs after declaring England’s second innings on their overnight score of 267 for eight, although taking 10 wickets on a lifeless wicket was always going to be a tall order for his four-pronged seam attack. Kumar Sangakkara struck 61 runs, following his first-innings hundred, and diminutive opener Kaushal Silva scored 57 runs, his 2nd half century of the match to help Sri Lanka buy some leeway. Skipper Angelo Mathews and injured wicket-keeper batsman Prasanna Jayawardene defied England surge for 20 overs but they only scored 24 runs in the process.
Earlier in the test match, England posted 575 for 9 declared in the 1st innings with Joe Root becoming England’s 1st double centurion in three years scoring his career best which earned him the Man of the Match award. Sri Lankan seam attack started promisingly restricting the hosts to 120 for 4 but they lost penetration as the game headed into final few sessions of day 1 and 2 in the England 1st innings.
England had a clear strategy against Lanka’s trump card Rangana Herath. The first ball faced by Moeen Ali against Herath was dispatched for a six. The batsmen were using their feet often or playing forward against him rather than staying put in the crease, and that paid off. Nuwan Pradeep bowled with venom as he was consistently touching high speeds of 80-85mph. Joe Root held the English innings together as he showed good temperament and concentration skills.
Sri Lanka in their 1st inning posted 453 runs with Kumar Sangakkara and Angelo Mathews scoring their maiden centuries at Lord’s – the home of Cricket. They were in command of proceedings with Lord’s wicket having little in it for the bowlers. Sangakkara, though went from strength to strength and brought up his 36th hundred in what has been spectacular calendar year for the former Sri Lankan Captain. Legendary Sangakkara’s dreams of a century at Lords finally came true as he made a belligerent 147 runs in 258 balls with 16 elegant fours. His cover-drives were in full flow and he left the ball just outside his off-stump with absolute precision; in his mind just one intent.
Skipper Angelo Mathews played with great courage to bring up an astonishing century in the first hour of day 4. Mathews made his fighting knock of 102 in 172 deliveries with 12 boundaries. Right handed Mathews showed no signs of discomfort as he seems to love batting with responsibility of captaincy upon his shoulders. Kaushal Silva made a fluent 63 but missed on converting it into a three-figure score.
The Lankan veterans in Sangakkara and Jayawardene scored another hundred-run partnership and became the highest run-getting partners across all formats scoring over 12000 runs together, beating Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly’s record of 12400.
England started their 2nd innings with a healthy lead of 122. Things looked very different as England slumped to 121 for six after Shaminda Eranga took three quick wickets and left-armer Herath followed up with a double strike of his own. Both attacks in this match had been frustrated by a docile Lord’s pitch. Eranga though defied the sluggish surface with a spell of three wickets for three runs in 21 balls. One drop batsman, Gary Ballance came to England‘s rescue with a maiden test hundred after Sri Lanka threatened to take the game away from the hosts. Zimbabwe-born left-hander Ballance added 78 for the seventh wicket with debutant Chris Jordan which changed the tide back to England’s way.
England declared the innings on 267 for eight in their second innings at stumps on the fourth day, handing 390 runs to chase for the visitors. Cook would have surely known that 300 or more has been chased successfully at Lord’s only once and that was by the West Indians on 1984. With history on his side, one has to wonder why Cook didn’t put the visitors in to bat an hour before the close of day 4.
Sri Lanka’s new vice-captain Lahiru Thirimanne had a forgettable match as he managed only to score 2 runs in each innings. Dimuth Karunarathne got off to starts but failed to convert them into big innings on both occasions. Sri Lanka’s lack of ability to close out opposition innings after initial breakthroughs will be discussed in next team selection meeting as to what should be the most potent attack to face the hosts in the 2nd Test which starts on 20th June at Headingly. Shaminda Eranga was impressive on both innings but the Sri Lankan attack could only manage to salvage 17 wickets in nearly 200 overs throughout the game.
Brief scores:
England (1st inn) – 575 for 9 dec in 130.3 overs : Joe Root 200*, Matt Prior 86, Ian Bell 56, Nuwan Pradeep 4/123, Shaminda Eranga 3/163.
Sri Lanka (1st inn) – 453 all out in 138.4 overs : Kumar Sangakkara 147, Angelo Mathews 102, Kaushal Silva 63, Mahela Jayawardene 55, Chris Jordan 3/102, James Anderson 3/93.
England (2nd inn) – 267 for 8 dec in 69 overs : Gary Ballance 104*, Chris Jordan 35, Shaminda Eranga 3/63, Rangana Herath 4/95.
Sri Lanka (2nd inn) – 201 for 9 in 90 overs : Kaushal Silva 57, Kumar Sangakkara 61, James Anderson 4/25, Stuart Broad 3/43.
