Sri Lanka v England – 3rd ODI – Match Recap
Sri Lanka handed a staggering defeat to hosts England, in the third fixture of the ongoing NatWest One Day series, as the tourists won the game by six wickets with ten deliveries to spare; successfully chasing the tally of 247 runs at Lord’s, in London,
on July 4, 2011.
After winning the toss, the English skipper, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Alastair-Nathan-Cook-c42852, chose to bat first, hoping to post an insurmountable score on the board for the tourists to chase.
While Cook had his sights set on a http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ranasinghe-Arachchige-Suranga-Lakmal-c83928 at mid-on off a slower
delivery bowed by Sri Lanka’s http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Separamadu-Lasith-Malinga-c89197. At the time, the hosts had scored only 18 runs.
In the 10th over http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Tillakaratne-Mudiyanselage-Dilshan-c93947 at mid-off, off the bowling of Lakmal.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Kevin-Peter-Pietersen-c71169 was the next man in. He halted the Sri Lankan rampage as he exhibited some fine strokes all around the park without taking too many risks.
With Cook and KP in the middle, things finally seemed to be heading in the right direction for the hosts as both batsmen bolstered a strong partnership against the opposition.
After playing a well-tamed innings of 41 runs, KP finally lost his wicket when he top edged a delivery by Jeevan Mendis, which was caught by Suraj Randiv at deep midwicket.
After KP, middle-order batsman, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Eoin-Joseph-Gerard-Morgan-c56032 came into the middle. Disappointingly, he could only score four runs off the bat before falling to his demise when he was trapped right in front of the stumps by Mendis.
With Morgan gone, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758 certainly had their work cut out for them. The English on the other hand, needed a genuine batsman to provide support to the skipper who was in a splendid form as he kept attacking the Sri Lankan bowlers.
In the later part of the innings, http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Ian-Ronald-Bell-c63974 and Tim Bresnan provided a support of 30 and 26 runs, which helped the skipper reach an astounding tally off 119 runs before losing his wicket on the penultimate delivery of the 49th
over, while trying to take a run.
The skipper walked back to the pavilion under http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Gordon-James-Muchall-c60376 applause. The audience gave him a standing ovation for his brilliant knock.
By the end of the innings, the hosts posted a reasonable total of 246 runs on the board and with the reigning formidable bowling attack there was every chance that England might be able to defend the score.
However, coming out to bat, the Lankans were in no mood to let the English get the upper hand. Opener http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Denagamage-Proboth-Mahela-de-Silva-Jayawardene-c53546 took the English bowlers to task right from the word go.
However, his opening partner Dilshan, who is back in the One Day series after recovering from a thumb injury, failed to impress anyone as he perished after scoring three runs off six deliveries, as a bolting delivery by http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Timothy-Thomas-Bresnan-c94089 rammed right into his
stumps.
It was one-down-batsman http://www.senore.com/Cricket/LD-Chandimal-c1831, who along with Jayawardene, restricted the English from taking any more wickets in the early part of the Sri Lankan innings. Both batsmen steadily took the game out of England’s clutches.
Jayawardene played a superb knock of 79 runs before losing his wicket in the 24th over. He was caught at point by http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Morgan-c77707, off a delivery by Jade Dernbach.
Veteran http://www.senore.com/Cricket/GP-Swann-c1501. The wicket gave England a glimmer of hope to climb back in the game; nonetheless, it was too late for the home side, as Dinesh
Chandimal steered his side to victory after clobbering a fine innings of 105.
The 21-year-old batsman was named as the Man of the Match for his contribution with the bat.
The two teams will now face each other in the fourth ODI of the 5-match Series on 6 July, 2011, at Nottingham.
The 4th ODI will be crucial for England if they want to level the series before going into the final match on July 9, 2011.
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