Sri Lanka in England

Yes, I am interested but couldn't be bothered making the thread, and knew you would eventually!

Refreshing to see some warm up games. I've always thought that these matches were great for domestic sides too! SL have done the locals no disservice by not only playing a few warm up games, but also one-off ODIs against Scotland and Ireland. Kudos to SL board for going ahead with that, as well as a proper 3 test series of course.

Do you think they should be looking to lose some matches then?

Originally posted by Clobber Yes, I am interested but couldn't be bothered making the thread, and knew you would eventually!

Originally posted by Sledger I saw the weather forecast for midday Thursday and the whole of mainland Britain was covered in a blanket of rain !  I'm hoping that they'll just be showers and we get plenty of play in between them. If that transpires it'll remind me of so many home tests where the players were on and off so many times it made me dizzy.         Expect the winner of the toss to bowl - it's a no brainer.

Automatic advantage to England for having a much better pace attack?

What's the odds on this series? SL have a lot of fight about them, but their attack looks toothless and England are playing at home with a very balanced, all-round side.

 SL just aint the same team away from home (Well who is huh). They just don't seem to ve the bowling to back em up, more so since the retirement of Murali and Malinga. 

Edited by vote4peace - 26 May 2011 at 9:07am

Dilshan wins the toss and has elected to Bat first!!! Strauss wouldn't be too dissapointed with that. 

feel free to point out a single derogatory remark I had made in this thread prior to your insolent comment towards me

Edited by MalhotraRaj84 - 27 May 2011 at 4:37pm

Impressive application by both openers , Dilshan was as careful as I've ever seen him before he gave it away with a rash shot. Paranavitana looked rock solid and did leave very well - some balls mssing off by a coat of paint.  The bowling was a little wayward , but it was very blustery and must have affected the seamers rhythm.  There's some help there , but little pace and if they're to make inroads this morning they'll have to get it up there - there was too much short of a length stuff dished up yesterday.
                I hope the weather brightens and we see a full day's play today - the Lankans did well and have shown why they're rated as a fine batting unit. 
                 One last comment and it's a major criticism of Glamorgan Cricket Club - a blank scoreboard is embarrassing at schoolboy level and absolutely unforgiveable in a test match. The paying public can't be expected to watch a match without the vital imformation of the state of the game - a major no-no.  The ECB need to change their method of determining where tests are played - bring back Old Trafford I say !



Edited by Sledger - 27 May 2011 at 7:02am

England have nabbed the three big wickets now, Dilshan, Jaya and Sanga. That's a big advantage to them and it looks like SL have a long tail. SL need one of these lower middle order batsmen to play a good knock. Anything under 300 will not be enough I would think, England's batting looks very strong on paper - and the SL bowlers are not very experienced in these conditions.

At the moment, advantage England.

They hit that important 300 mark and the keeper does make runs! Nonetheless, you can't play every match with him at 6 and Maharoof at 7 - no way!
But my word, that SL attack looks toothless. They really 3 strong seamers, not 2 decent seamers + Maharoof...

Prasanna has got a century and I have to say that this is a very flat wicket. England started off well but after two early wickets it has been Srilanka all the way.

Raining in Ireland, raining in England, what kind of a "summer" is this?

Anderson won't be bowling again in this match due to a side strain, which leaves England with a 3 man attack for the second innings, so any thoughts they might have had of winning here are right out of the window. I suspect they would be content for it to rain the next 3 days in the circumstances.