Lanka pay for their indiscretion

But then, these days, I suppose sporting events of such magnitude are controlled more by satellite TV channels and, as such, it8217;s no wonder that Wimbledon begins but a day after the World Cup ends.

Lord8217;s cricket ground, too, sports a different look this time around. It8217;s got to do with commercialisation and I presume they have to keep pace with the trend. The newly-built Press box and the West Stands are superb.

With rain a major threat, the strategy of each team would be to put the opposition in after the toss which is precisely what the English did. TheLankans batted as they would normally do on wickets in the sub-continent, by hitting the ball through the line. Little wonder they paid a heavy penalty. For, in England, a batsman has to allow the ball to come to him rather than go fishing for it. It8217;s always advisable to play on the front foot most of the time on such slow wickets and work the ball around.

This, most of the Lankans failed to do. Instead, they played and missed several times and showed no inclination to stay put at the wicket and work hard for their runs. Their indiscretion cost them dearly as a good number of them were gobbled up in the slips. Somebody ought to have reminded them that in England a batsman is never set during his tenure at the wicket for the ball keeps moving around throughout the day. And it is important for a batsman to stay ever alert and refrain from induldging in flamboyant shots.However, just when all seemed lost for the Lankans, little Kaluwitharana essayed a cameo knock. He literally took the bull by the horns andexecuted some dare-devil shots.

What also surprised me was that Sri Lanka8217;s main batsman, the classic Aravinda de Silva, came in at No 5 rather than his customary position of No 4. Is he low on confidence at the moment? Or, did the team think-tank, for some reason, wanted to save him from the new ball? Your guess is as good as mine. I would have thought that it would have made more sense in his sticking to his earlier position. The English seamers thrive on home conditions. Gough and Mullally, for instance, derived a fair amount of pace, movement and bounce from the normally slow Lord8217;s pitch and did the Lankans in. Mullally8217;s deliveries which got rid of Aravinda and Jayasuriya in particular were sheer beauties. Even bowlers like Austin, Hollioake and Ealham bowled their up and down stuff economically, much to the delight of their supporters. Compare that to the way such blokes bowl 8212; and get hammered on wickets of the sub continent.

When England began the chase, the Lankan bowlers struggled for abreakthrough as Stewart and Hussain made full use of the opportunity to be among the runs. This outing of theirs would surely have done their confidence a world of good. After all, there8217;s no better way of getting back one8217;s rhythm than by spending time out there in the middle and scoring runs.