England v Sri Lanka – 5th ODI – Hosts Prevail over Tourists - Match Recap
England, in a sensational clash against http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758, sealed the 5-match series by beating the Lankans by 16 runs, in a match at Old Trafford, Manchester, on July 9, 2011.
After posting a formidable total of 268 runs, the hosts made life miserable for the Lankans, right from the word go, as they did not let the tourists take the upper hand at any point. The English pace attack neutralized the dangerous Sri Lankan openers early
in the innings.
The demolition process erupted in the second over when http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Timothy-Thomas-Bresnan-c94089.
Sri Lanka had not recuperated from the early loss of the opener, when the out of form skipper http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Tillakaratne-Mudiyanselage-Dilshan-c93947, also perished after posting four runs off six deliveries, when the batsman hooked a shot straight in the hands of Jade Dernbach at fine-leg.
Bresnan was the bowler to take the honour of sending the Sri Lankan skipper back to the pavilion.
However, it was not over yet, as one down batsman Kumar Sangakkara, who has been in magnificent form with the bat throughout the English tour, once again stood defiant against the English bowlers.
The English bowlers have been troubled all summer by Sangakkara as the batsman has been extremely difficult to tackle even under difficult conditions. With Sangakkara and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Denagamage-Proboth-Mahela-de-Silva-Jayawardene-c53546 in the middle, it was surely going to be a difficult task for the
English to counter the two veterans. However, Jayawardene surprisingly lost his nerve in the crucial match as he lost his wicket after scoring nine runs off 15 balls.
The batsman had been highly impressive, opening the batting for Sri Lanka the whole summer, and pushing him down the order in the final match turned out to be an epic failure.
The batsman lost his wicket by chipping a delivery straight in the hands of the English skipper Alastair Cook at mid-off, on a delivery bowled by England’s strike bowler http://www.senore.com/Cricket/James-Clayton-Anderson-c65552.
Then it was time for the hero of the third match http://www.senore.com/Cricket/LD-Chandimal-c1831 to help Sangakkara in the difficult situation. After failing to post a run in the fourth game, Chandimal seemed back to his best as he played well-timed shots all around the cricket ground,
giving spectators something to cheer about. The batsman clobbered 54 runs off 64 deliveries before getting stumped by wicketkeeper Kieswetter on a delivery bowled by England’s number one spinner, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/GP-Swann-c1501, in the 27th over.
At the time of his departure the Lankans managed to post a total of 123 runs on the board with still a long way to reach the required target.
On the last delivery of the 30th over, Sri Lanka suffered a severe loss, when the wicket of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/KC-Sangakkara-c1779 was snatched by Bresnan with a pacing delivery, which bolted right into the batsman’s stumps. He had crafted an innings of 48 runs off
75 deliveries.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Kevin-Peter-Pietersen-c71169
off a delivery bowled by http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Samit-Patel-c2426.
Sri Lanka finally lost all hope in the penultimate over when Mathews looped a delivery at http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Short-c90107 third-man, straight in the hands of Bresnan, who easily held on to the catch that came off a delivery bowled by Jade Dernbach.
In the end Sri Lanka fell to their demise after making only 252 runs in response to England’s tally.
Earlier in the day, after winning the toss, England decided to bat first in a bid to put post runs on the board for the tourist to chase in the crucial match.
With the series levelled 2-2, it was imperative for England to come out with a winning strategy to counter the threat of the Sri Lankan One-Day squad.
Opener http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Eoin-Joseph-Gerard-Morgan-c56032 (57) played phenomenally well to help their side post an impressive total for Sri Lanka to chase. In the end the effort by the English batsmen proved enough to take the NatWest series.
Trott was named as the Man of the Match, while skipper http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Alastair-Nathan-Cook-c42852 was named as the Man of the Series.
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