Sri Lanka to rue the disastrous session on the fifth day of Cardiff Test
Sri Lanka saved the last Test of the three-match series at the Rose Bowl because of a splendid hundred by the stand-in captain http://www.senore.com/Cricket/KC-Sangakkara-c1779. However, they failed to avoid the series defeat as England won by 1-0 because of their emphatic triumph in the
first Test at Cardiff.
No cricket analyst was giving any chance to http://www.senore.com/Cricket/AJ-Strauss-c964 and company for the whole of the series;
however, a pathetic session in the last day of the first Test cost Sri Lanka the Test series.
The visitors were comfortably placed to secure a draw on the morning of the fifth day of the first Test but their batting line-up fell like a ‘house of cards’ to hand over a thrilling victory to England, which turned out to be the difference in the series.
Sri Lankan cricket fans will be rueing that session in Cardiff but they can still take a lot of positives from this series as their young batsmen impressed in all the matches.
However, the bowling remains a concern as they never looked like taking 20 wickets in any match. Apart from Strauss, none of the English batsmen were troubled by the Sri Lankan bowling attack, which no longer has the services of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/M-Muralitharan-c1864, Chaminda
Vaas and http://www.senore.com/Cricket/SL-Malinga-c2540 in the longer version of the sport.
On top of that, Sri Lanka had a completely new captain in shape of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/TM-Dilshan-c2691, who took over the role after the resignation of Sangakkara. However, the left hander had to take on the responsibility once again in the third match as the regular captain
was ruled out after a hairline fracture to his thumb.
Sangakkara admitted after the last Test that they had an opportunity to do better in the series but that one session at Cardiff was enough to concede the victory to the home team.
He said, "We're a side in transition, but in a way we've fallen short. Everyone can look at themselves and think they could have done things better over the past few weeks. We will learn our lessons from the tour, there are many things to ponder, but it's
been a great experience and a lot of the players have been superb in the last few weeks."
Although, the advantage is with the home team after the Test series but Sri Lanka is surely going to give them a tougher time in the limited overs series as the former world champions are more suited to 50-overs and the T20 format of the game.
It is going to be a different ball game altogether in the limited overs as http://www.senore.com/Cricket/ICC-World-Cup-2011-c100625 Cricket World Cup 2011 in the sub-continent. They are a
settled unit in Test match cricket but England is now going to have two different captains in T20 cricket and ODIs in shape of http://www.senore.com/Cricket/AN-Cook-c1026 respectively.
Let’s hope that we witness a brilliant fight in the limited overs series as both the teams are in a rebuilding phase. England is still going to start as favourites because of the home advantage that they have.
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