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| Sunday, 16 June 2002 |
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Atapattu breaks finger as Lanka fight back Sa'adi Thawfeeq reporting from England OLD TRAFFORD, June 15 - England put themselves in an impregnable position from where they cannot lose the third and final cricket Test at Old Trafford here when they ran up their third consecutive total of over 500 against Sri Lanka in the on-going Test series. England continuing from their overnight total of 377 for six were all out for 512 with Alec Stewart, the oldest member of the team at 39, celebrated his 118th Test appearance (which put him level with Graham Gooch as the highest capped England Test player) with a fine century. Stewart scored 123, the same score as his Surrey team mate Mark Butcher on the second day, to place England in a position where they only need a draw to clinch the three-Test series 1-0, having won handsomely by an innings at Edgbaston. Sri Lanka made a bold reply finishing the day at 130 for one wicket with Kumar Sangakkara unbeaten on 33 and Mahela Jayawardene on 11. Sri Lanka's new opening combination of Marvan Atapattu and Russell Arnold took the total to 48 without loss before they suffered a major blow when Atapattu was hit on the right index finger by a delivery from Matthew Hoggard which skidded through quickly to surprise the batsman. Atapattu dropped his bat and hopped around in pain before finally going down. He was forced to retire hurt with his score on 10. An X'ray revealed a fracture but there was no indication whether it was a new or old one. At least the Atapattu-Arnold combination saw Andy Caddick off as the England spearhead was also forced to retire midway in his sixth over with a left side strain. Arnold played well sometimes living dangerously, to complete a half-century 53 balls with 10 fours, but lost his wicket rather unnecessarily when he went he got a top edge on to a hook and was caught at backward square leg for 62. Sri Lanka lost his wicket at 107, but survived the remaining overs without any further disaster. Once again the day was marred by bad weather. A wet outfield pushed back the start by an hour and then bad light held up play for 13 minutes during the Sri Lankan innings. It was another day where the English batting capitalized on some pretty ordinary bowling, the only bright spark being fast bowler Chaminda Vaas finally reaching his mark of 200 Test wickets. The left-armer had Alex Tudor caught brilliantly by Arnold at second slip for 19 to reach that mark in his 62nd Test match. Vaas along with Muttiah Muralitharan are the only two Sri Lankan bowlers who have crossed the century-mark of wickets in Test cricket. Vaas also doubled the number of wickets he had taken in the series before this Test when he finished with figures of two for 121. Muralitharan bowling on a ground which had brought him a record century of wickets in only 12 matches for Lancashire, ended up with three wickets off 60 overs, while Dilhara Fernando on his return to Test cricket after a back injury also had three, but he went for and expensive 154 runs bowling too many short deliveries and being duly punished by Stewart. The former England captain dropped on nought by Jayawardene on the first day, and surviving a close stumping chance at 78 to Muralitharan in the first ball after tea, completed his 15th Test century in style. He hit the erratic Fernando for four consecutive boundaries to move from 86 to his hundred in four scoring strokes. It took him 216 minutes and 146 balls and comprised 16 fours. He used his feet well to Muralitharan, but finally succumbed to him when he pushed forward and was caught by Tillakaratne at silly point. He batted 273 minutes and faced 190 balls hitting 17 fours overall. With Ashley Giles who hit a Test career best 45, Stewart added 102 for the eighth wicket off 172 balls which was a new record for England against Sri Lanka. The previous highest for that wicket was 28 between Graham Thorpe and Robert Croft at the SSC in 2000-01. Giles batted 109 minutes and during that time showed no discomfort against the bowling hitting seven fours before Muralitharan had him caught behind with a ball that left him. Giles' previous highest was 37 against Pakistan at Lahore in 2000-01.
ENGLAND - 1ST INNINGs (overnight 377-6) M. Trescothick c Jayawardene b Muralitharan 81 M. Vaughan c Vaas b D.Fernando 36 M. Butcher lbw b Vaas 123 N.Hussain c Muralitharan b D.Fernando 16 G.Thorpe c Sangakkara b Upashantha 32 A.Stewart c Tillekeratne b Muralitharan 123 A.Flintoff run out Vaas 1 A.Tudor c Arnold b Vaas 19 A.Giles c Sangakkara b Muralitharan 45 A.Caddick not out 2 M.Hoggard lbw b Fernando 7 EXTRAS (b-5 lb-10 nb-12) 27 TOTAL (all out, 145.2 overs) 512 FALL OF WICKETS: 1-66 2-192 3-219 4-262 5-354 6-361 7-400 8-502 9-503 10-512 BOWLING: Vaas 38-8-121-2, Upashantha 8-0-65-1, Fernando 29.2-2-154-3 Muralitharan 60-20-137-3, de Silva 2-0-5-0, Jayasuriya 8-2-15-0 SRI LANKA 1ST INNINGS M.Atapattu retired hurt 10 R.Arnold c Vaughan b Tudor 62 K.Sangakkara 33 M.Jayawardene 11 EXTRAS (lb-1 nb-13) 14 TOTAL (for one wicket, 38 overs) 130 FALL OF WICKET: 1-107 To bat: A.de Silva, S.Jayasuriya, H.Tillekeratne, C.Vaas, E.Upashantha, D.Fernando, M.Muralitharan BOWLING (to date): Caddick 5.3-2-17-0 (1-nb), Hoggard 2-0-17-0 (4-nb), Flintoff 9-2-38-0 (6-nb), Tudor 9.3-2-34-1 (2-nb), Giles 12-2-23-0, |
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