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| Sunday, 14 December 2003 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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Ton up Dilshan thunder gives Lanka scent of victory Sa'adi Thawfeeq reporting from Kandy KANDY, December 13 - Thillakaratne Dilshan probably resurrected his Test career with a superb century, only his second in 12 Tests spanning four years as Sri Lanka pressed for victory in the second cricket Test against England at the Asgiriya Stadium here today. Dilshan made exactly 100 and his 129-ball century enabled Sri Lanka to declare at 279-7 at tea on the fourth day, leaving England a victory target of 368 in four sessions. By stumps brought forward by bad light and 12 overs left for the day, England had moved rather shakily to 89 for two wickets. They require a further 279 runs for victory with eight wickets in hand. Sri Lanka on the other hand have a minimum of 102 overs to capture the remaining English wickets. Sri Lanka captured the wickets of Marcus Trescothik for 14 and Mark Butcher for six but skipper Michael Vaughan with his second half-century of the Test and Nasser Hussain (17) saw the rest of the day through without any further loss. Hussain was lucky to be still at the crease after surviving a confident lbw appeal the first ball he faced from Muralitharan. The innings was not without incident as Trescothick also survived a confident lbw shout against Fernando at eight and Butcher was ruled out stumped by the third umpire - a marginal decision which he was rather unlucky to get. The day's hero Dilshan said that England would have a tough task ahead of them tomorrow to save the Test match. "The pitch is favouring spin. There is bounce and there are rough spots on either side of the wicket. Batting is not easy as in the first innings. The ball started to turn a lot after lunch today. It won't be easy to play our spinners on this type of track. I am confident that we can win this test tomorrow," said Dilshan. "It is not easy to survive on this pitch. England has a big total to chase on the fifth day. They have already lost two wickets. They will have to survive as well as score runs. There is a lot of pressure on them," he said. A batting revelation Dilshan's batting was a revelation. It should have brought about a great deal of confidence to the rest of the Sri Lankan batting line up which had failed to bat with any conviction in the series so far. The 27-year-old right-hander from Kalutara simply took the game away from England with a series of cuts, pulls and drives which was a feature of his magnificent knock. He made his intentions quite clear from the time he came to the wicket. The first ball he received from Kirtley he flicked off his legs for four and from there onwards none of the England bowlers could control the flow of runs from his bat. Using his feet well to both spin and pace Dilshan sped to his half century off 61 balls in 76 minutes which included eight fours and a pulled six off Flintoff who tested him with a series of short-pitched deliveries. He was dismissed in the first innings by a short-pitched delivery off Flintoff, which he gloved to slip. With Mahela Jayawardane playing the sheet anchor role, Dilshan had the freedom to play his shots. The pair passed the fifth wicket record of 148 between Sidath Wettimuny and Arjuna Ranatunga against England at Lords in 1984, before Dilshan completed his century with a flick off his legs to a Flintoff delivery after avoiding the four previous deliveries that was bowled short and rising to unsettle him. Dilshan took 159 minutes and faced 127 balls in his century, which comprised 13 fours and a six. He was out two balls later giving Giles the charge and offering Reid an easy stumping. The standing ovation he received from the spectators in the grandstand was worth every run he scored. It has certainly been a fine comeback for Dilshan, after being ignored for the Tests in the past 33 months to be top scorer in both innings with knocks of 63 and 100. The only previous century he has scored in his limited Test appearances was 163 not out against Zimbabwe at Harare in 1999-2000. It turned out to be a match-winning effort and a series-deciding century. Sri Lanka won the three-Test series 1-0 with two drawn. The current series too could end the same way, with already one Test drawn at Galle. The Jayawardane-Dilshan stand raised 153 off 234 balls for the fourth wicket. Jayawardane completed his second half-century of the series in 162 minutes and 107 balls (4 fours) after surviving a third umpire's decision for a run out at 48. A direct hit at the non-striker's end from Trescothick saw Jayawardane airborne with both legs in the air. Jayawardane did not last long, Flintoff bowled him as he missed a drive. During his three-hour knock, Jayawardane reached 200 runs in the on going series and became the higherst-run getter for Sri Lanka against England surpassing Aravinda de Silva's aggregate of 739 runs (avg. 38.89) from 11 Tests. Jayawardane's present tally stands at 743 runs (avg.53.07)from 9 Tests. The way he is batting at present Jayawardane has certainly got into a groove. What is missing is a Test century from his broad bat. His home ground, the SSC (venue of the third Test) could be an ideal place to score one. Left-arm spinner Giles who bowled the most overs for England in the match finished with another haul of eight wickets to take his tally in the series to 16, one less than the figure he took in three Tests against Pakistan in 2000-01. 'Using the feet is the key' Dilshan said that he succeeded against the England bowling because he used his feet to the spinners. "They got turn by tossing the ball up and when I started using my feet to them they found it difficult to contain me," said Dilshan. "England bowled well but when I started using feet and the runs started to flow they were helpless. Although three wickets had fallen for 53 runs I was told to play my normal positive game and it worked," he said. "Mahela plays spin better than me and he batted very well. If you are prepared to use your feet to the spinners you can tackle the England spinners quite easily. Batty doesn't spin the ball much," Dilshan continued. He said that having missed out on a hundred in the first innings, he was happy to get a hundred in the second. He scored 63 in the first innings. "I would rate both innings at Asgiriya ahead of the century I scored against Zimbabwe because after being left out for 2 1/2 years, I wanted to prove that I can play still play Test cricket. I was also under some pressure to score runs in this Test because I was included in the team purely as a batsman. I undertook the responsibility and I am very happy I have done well," said Dilshan. England coach Duncan Fletcher said: "The players have got to take heart out of what they did in the last Test and make sure they do the same if not better. On the last day you never know what's going to happen. The pitch will be dried up a bit more by tomorrow we just have to see." "It was nice to see Vaughan get that 50. To me he looked a lot more confident. I just hope he gets one of those big scores that he is known for," Fletcher said. SRI LANKA - 1ST INNINGS 382 (T. Dilshan 63, A. Giles 5-116) ENGLAND - 1ST INNINGS 294 (G. Thorpe 57, M.Vaughan 52, M. Muralitharan 4-60, C. Vaas 4-77) SRI LANKA - 2ND INNINGS
(overnight 39-1)
M. Atapattu lbw b Giles 8
S. Jayasuriya b Kirtley 27
K. Sangakkara c Collingwood b Giles 10
M. Jayawardene b Flintoff 52
T. Dilshan st Read b Batty 100
H. Tillakaratne c Thorpe b Giles 20
T. Samaraweera not out 23
C. Vaas c Vaughan b Kirtley 20
K. Dharmasena not out 7
Extras (LB-6 NB-5 W-1) 12
TOTAL (for seven wkts, declared) 279
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-33 (Atapattu), 2-41 (Jayasuriya),
3-53 (Sangakkara), 4-206 (Dilshan),
5-212 (Jayawardena), 6-243 (Tillakaratne),
7-272 (Vaas).
DID NOT BAT: D.Fernando, M.Muralitharan.
BOWLING: Kirtley 17-4-62-2 (NB-1), Flintoff 15-3-40-1 (NB-3 W-1)
Giles 22-3-101-3 (NB-1), Batty 11-1-47-1,
Vaughan 3-0-11-0, Collingwood 3-0-12-0.
ENGLAND - 2ND INNINGS M. Trescothick c Jayawardene b Vaas 14
M. Vaughan not out 50
M. Butcher st Sangakkara b Muralitharan 6
N. Hussain not out 7
Extras (LB-2) 2
TOTAL (for two wkts, 36 overs) 89
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-24 (Trescothick), 2-50 (Butcher).
TO BAT: G.Thorpe, P.Collingwood, A.Flintoff, C.Read,
G.Batty, J.Kirtley, A.Giles.
BOWLING (to date): Vaas 11-3-25-1, Fernando 6-1-15-0,
Dharmasena 8-1-27-0, Muralitharan 10-3-19-1,
Jayasuriya 1-0-1-0.
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