England reach 229 for 6 against Sri Lanka in quarter-final – ICC World Cup 2011
England posted a decent total in their quarter-final match of the ICC World Cup 2011 against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758, at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on Saturday. The visitors scored 229 runs in their allotted 50 overs. The winners of today’s game will face New
Zealand at the same ground in the semi-final of the event.
The visitors won the toss and elected to bat first without any hesitation. The wicket was expected to provide assistance to the spinners and batting was not easy in the middle. However, the team batting second was expected to struggle a lot more.
The start to the English innings wasn’t an ideal one, as they lost their captain Andrew Strauss early. The left-handed opener managed to score just five runs off 19 balls in today’s match. He wasn’t comfortable at the crease and seldom found the middle of
his bat.
After experimenting with Kevin Pietersen and Matt Prior, England chose to open the innings with Ian Bell today. The stylish right-hander looked good, as he timed the ball sweetly. However, he failed to carry onto the start he got, as he was sent back to
the pavilion after adding 25 runs to the total.
The fall of two quick wickets brought Jonathan Trott and Ravi Bopara together at the crease. The pair constructed a 64-run partnership for the third wicket and took their team’s total to 95, before Bopara was dismissed. The all-rounder struggled to get runs,
as he escaped a few close shouts at the start of his innings. He was lucky to score 31 runs with the help of one boundary.
This brought Eoin http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Morgan-c77707 to the crease, who put together an outstanding 91-run partnership with Trott for the fourth wicket. The flamboyant left-hander was extremely lucky today, as he was dropped thrice by the Sri Lankan fielders. He was finally caught
after scoring a solid 50 runs from 55 balls.
England failed to make the most of the final batting power-play, as they only scored 23 runs for the loss of two wickets in it. However, Trott batted brilliantly for his team. The in-form batsmen got out in the 49th over of the innings after scoring
a valiant 86 runs from 115 balls.
A quick fire 22 off 19 balls from wicketkeeper batsman Matt Prior helped http://www.senore.com/Cricket/England-c749 get past 225 at the end.
Wily off-spinner http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Muttiah-Muralitharan-c78157 was the pick of the bowlers for his team, as he took two wickets in the match.
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