“Depleted Sri Lankan team came under pressure due to some exceptional English bowling attack”
England, already having a 1-0 lead in the npower Test Series against Sri Lanka managed to put huge pressure on the opponents in the 3rd test. At the end of the first day game, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758 managed to add only 81 runs to their score card. This historical
match at rose bowl was delayed due to rain and had no fluency like the first test played at Cardiff.
When the action finally started on 12:15pm local time, toss winning English captain http://www.senore.com/Cricket/AJ-Strauss-c964 chose to field first. This decision which raised the eyebrows proved to be fruitful later on as Sri Lanka lost four early wickets at a meagre score of 39.
Sri Lankan top order batsmen were ripped by the English seam bowlers and could not managed to hold the wickets for long. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/DPMD-Jayawardene-c1397 were baffled by the sudden outbursts of the English seamers who made best use of the short time
given by the rain to play.
Early dismissal of the players like these two was very shocking for the Sri Lankan side and disappointed the Sri Lankan former players. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Marvan-Samson-Atapattu-c74969 said in a press conference after the 1st day match of the Rose Bowl Test that Jayawardene
would be surprised to see the replay of the shot he played and got out.
The top scoring batsmen in the Sri Lankan history fell for only single digit scores and this made the former player to pass comments on the decisions made by them in the past. Atapattu states that Kumar and Mahela missed the first tour match against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Middlesex-c817
which could have helped them to get acquainted with the English conditions and helped them in winning.
On a pitch like that of Rose Bowl which is considered as a batsmen paradise, Sri Lanka presented a hopeless show and ended the day at skimpy total 81 runs. This gave the impression to the spectators that Andrew and his bowlers have some clever strategy
in mind which worked as they planned.
Anderson believed that he had taken Paranavitana but the umpire http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Aleem-Sarwar-Dar-c43094 did not give him out. English side felt it was unjust but soon forgot it when Strauss caught Thirimanne at first slip. Early lunch was taken as the rain had started again after this
dismissal but English team was happy to take the opener.
When the play was resumed, Sangakkara was caught behind on Anderson’s ball putting Sri Lanka into serious trouble. This series has lost 11 hours of play so far due to rain and if the same continues on the 2nd and the 3rd day of the
match, Sri Lanka would not be able to put in effort for leveling the series.
Sri Lankan captain Jayawardene who was already reluctant to accept the Captaincy wanted to put up a decent score saying it is the last chance to level the series. But as more rain is forecasted on Friday and Saturday, it seems very difficult.
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