England v Sri Lanka – 3rd Test – Last Day’s Recap
After ending the fourth day on 112 runs for the loss of three wickets, England had a strong chance of bowling the tourists out on the last day of the match, on June 20, 2011, to win the series by 2-0 against Sri Lanka.
However, the stand-in Sri Lankan skipper, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Herath-Mudiyanselage-Rangana-Keerthi-Bandara-Herath-c62873, had other plans and were in no mood to let Andrew Strauss’ team run-over them without a fight.
Flamboyant batting by both the batsmen clearly took the English by surprise, who were aiming to make early inroads.
For http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Main-c73911 cause for concern was the absence of rain, as after being dreaded by wet weather throughout the series, the last day had a clear sun, giving the English bowlers plenty of time to bowl the tourists out.
Standing against the English bowlers in such a situation required determination and nerves of steel which were exhibited by both the batsmen as they blocked and punched deliveries from the likes of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/SCJ-Broad-c2465, taking
the score to 185 without losing a wicket.
The Lankan body language spoke clearly, they were going to stay on the wicket for as long as possible and frustrate the English bowlers.
On the other hand, Strauss’ bowlers were trying very hard to wrap up the game, while Sangakkara and Herath were aiming to draw the match, to avert a series defeat.
In the 64th over of the day, it was none other than England’s number one spinner, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/GP-Swann-c1501, who finally removed Herath by trapping him right in front of the stumps.
The Sri Lankan went walking back to the pavilion after scoring 36 runs on 72 deliveries. He had provided good support to his skipper who on the other end looked calm and cool as ever. Sangakkara, after a lean patch, was looking confident and willing to take
the fight till the end.
After Herath, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Thilan-Thusara-Samaraweera-c93199 was sent in to provide support to Sangakkara and he proved his worth as not only he retained his wicket but also smacked the English bowlers whenever there was an opportunity.
Strauss knew that he needed to get at least one of them out to secure a victory. However, all his bowlers gradually seemed impotent against the collective batting of the duo.
After completing the hundredth over in the second innings, both Sangakkara and Samaraweera had taken the tally to a remarkable 321 runs, and had, to some extent worn-out the fielding side. By this time Strauss had run out of ideas and was just waiting for
a miracle to happen.
Finally on the last delivery of 102nd over, strike bowler Anderson managed to remove Sangakkara as the batsman was caught by AP http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Rouse-c86915 on a slow delivery. Sangakkara walked back after scoring 119 runs. The stand-in skipper managed to save the game for his
team.
Later, Samaraweera and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/HAPW-Jayawardene-c1529, remained unbeaten on 87 and 6 runs as they ended the game in a draw.
England’s lead bowler, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Christopher-Timothy-Tremlett-c51014, was named as the Man of the Match for his seven wickets in the clash.
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