Gallant fight back by Sanga and Angelo

In spite of the daring fight back by Sangakkara and Angelo Mathews, the Sri Lankan cricketers who had a good opportunity of bearding the British Lions in their own den, and wrapping up the NatWest one-day series, made a mess of it with a lackluster all round display, to be completely outplayed by the home team.

Kumar Sangakkara and Angelo Mathews who were equal to the task and stood up to the England bowlers. At the time of writing, the series is level with two wins to each team, with the crucial final game to be played at Old Trafford, Manchester on Saturday. When this column is being read, the game would have been over, and here's hoping that the Lankans would have overcome the Brits and skipper Tillekeratne Dilshan proudly holding aloft the NatWest Trophy.

When the 4th game was to be played in Nottingham, the Lankans were leading the series 2-1 and looked confident of winning the match and putting the issue beyond doubt, with the final game going to be only of academic interest. When Alastair Cook won the toss and invited Sri Lanka to bat, Dilshan seemed to be happy to bat first.

Dilshan said had he won the toss he would have batted. But the overcast conditions that allowed the England pacemen to move the ball about and the tinge of grass on the wicket proved too much for the Lankan batsmen to cope with and the poor 174 they made tells the story, of what was a batting debacle.

Good as over

P>When 5 wickets were down for 57, the game was as good as over for the Lankans. It was caused by some poor judgement. The batsmen did not seem to have the technique and the temperament to watch and play the moving ball. At this level of the game it was an inexplicable and unforgiving collective lapse.

It was only Kumar Sangakkara and Angelo Mathews who were equal to the task and stood up to the England bowlers and dug in to post a face saving 72- run stand for the 6th wicket. Mathews received a brute of a ball from Bresnan and the caught and bowled catch that the bowler took was breath taking. That was the beginning of the end.

Kumar Sangakkara played a lone hand to make a gallant 75. With 38 balls to go, had Sangakkara just missed scoring a hundred, due to no fault on his part but rather a lack of support from the other end . But with the last man in, Sangakkara in desperation, perhaps, swung wildly to be the last man out.

But to the credit of the England pace foursome, it must be said that they used the wicket and the over cast conditions to great effect and had the Sri Lankan batsmen in chains. James Anderson, Tim Bresnan, Stuart Broad and Jade Dernbach looked larger than life.

Wicket had eased

P>Surprisingly when England batted, the wicket had eased and openers Cook and Craig Kieswetter made merry against a Sri Lankan attack that lacked bite and sting. Cook who has come in for a lot of criticism for his slow batting was in a revolting mood to put at bay his critics.

Getting his act right he just scattered the Lankan bowling showing scant respect as he raced to 95. A century was there for him for the asking. With nearly 24 overs remaining, Cook could have asked Kieswetter to play down and not score.

Cook had a wry smile on his face when he was denied a century by Kieswetter maximum, having been annoyed by Dinesh Chandimal's selfish quest for one at Lord's.

'Kieswetter did ask if he should hit a single or go for a six - and he hit a six. But it's the way we want to play our cricket with the team coming before personal milestones', said Cook.

Ghany ideal man

P>If cricket and its standard are to further improve, then it is essential that good, honest and dedicated men (umpires) be found to don the white coat and stand in the middle as adjudicators.

Umpires can make or mar not only a game, but also the future of a cricketer. Generally umpiring has always been impartial. As usual there will be the dishonest umpire. But that does not mean that you tar all umpires with the same brush.

The good news for the betterment of umpiring is the election of former Zahira College, Moors SC and CCC cricketer Ashroff Ghany to head the Sri Lanka Cricket Umpires Association.

It is good to have a cricketer at the helm of the Association. Ghany was a leg spin/googly bowler and a successful school career moved into the club scene where he continued the good work before hanging up his boots.

Ghany is a glutton for work. Once he takes up a position, there is no looking back. He will by example get the best out of the men around him and the umpires in the association and the cricketers are assured of fair play.

After reviving the SLCUA recently where Ghany was elected to the top post he said: 'We have several requests from other associations top revive our association. We (SLCUA) were operating in hand with (ACUSL) for the past three decades or so.

'We have seen a clear decline in the quality of umpiring. So we decided to go solo. We hope to work closely with Sri Lanka Cricket. Our main task is to install strict discipline among our members in order to discharge umpiring in a just and fair manner. Unfortunately many of these areas are overlooked by existing factions' he said.

So with Ghany in the top seat, everyone is assured of fair play.

Incidentally Ghany's son Naveed was an outstanding all round cricketer at S. Thomas' College, Mount Lavinia where he led the school to win many match trophies with his outstanding ability as captain. He shone with bat and ball. Naveed is now in England concentrating on his studies and also playing cricket.

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