Sri Lanka v England 2012

I'm saying nothing about cricket and the ICC can be trusted since India are so powerful financially and politically!

For the first test against Sri Lanka today, England have gone for a third spinner by picking Samit Patel for his test debut, ahead of Bopara, whose side strain would have prohibited him from bowling, and Bresnan, who would have been the third seamer if selected and might have come in useful. Apparently Patel will bat at 7 with Prior at 6, although Patel's a decent batsman with a first class average of 41.42. Sri Lanka won the toss and are batting first.

Good start... 7 down on a good strip

Sri Lanka 289-8.A magnificent ton from Mahela Jayawardene 168no.England did well in the field,less Monty putting 2 catches down & Swann going wicketless & going at 4 runs per over.Take away left handers to bowl at & he hasn't taken many other wickets.

Jayawardene did play well, of course the two chances that went to Anderson were both tricky, but sadly the same can't be said about both of the ones that went to Monty.

Glad to see they picked Patel in the XI this morning, was half expecting them to go with Bopara and get the overs out of Trott and Pietersen or even bring Bresnan back in and have him bat at 7 (fairly sure he'll be back in for Swann or Panesar ie 2nd spinner come the start of the Windies series), but nice to see them make this change now quite frankly.

Monty Panesar....
Bowls like a cricket international.
Bats like a village team no11.
Catches like my old granny... (only he's not as good )

Sri Lanka are well on top.
They managed to score over 300 and England have lost 3 early wicket for about 50 runs.

Good job that we had Jimmy in the bowling attack or Sri Lanka

Ironic that Sri Lanka have played nothing but One Day Cricket,yet England who have prepared properly this time have no excuse.Struggling to bat 5
overs,obsessed with sweeping.Only Cook & Bell got out to good balls.Bell has been out of form,but played the only proper innings.Bowlers now in slog-mode,maybe all pissed off that the batsmen have let them down.

Well England only lasted 46.4 overs and made 193 all out. Sri Lanka therefore have a first innings lead of 125. Bell top scored with 52 and Herath took 6/74 as England fall to spin once more.

(28-02-2012 22:47 )snookered147 Wrote:  Once again how the England batsmen cope with the conditions will be the key factor in the tests just as I said it would be against Pakistan in the UAE. The heat will be stifling and the pitches suited to spin. We can only hope that the batsmen have learnt a harsh lesson in how to move their feet correctly and shot selection for the longer form of the game. The limited overs results have been good and thats encouraging but England simply have to perform better in the test series in Sri Lanka than they did against Pakistan with the bat. I have no fears for the England bowlers, I think they will be fine.

Oh dear, it looks like my fears were realized . They have to bat better 2nd time around. The England bowlers are toiling away in the heat only for the batsmen to render all that hard work almost meaningless .