An impressive victory for an much changed team from England lost last week at Bristol. An more experienced team all round and England quality was there for everyone to see last night as they trashed Sri Lanka by 110 runs. England brought 5 different players to the 50 over format Cook in for Lumb as full time captain, Trott back into the team for Wright, Bell replacing the poor and out of form Bopara, Bresnan in for Patel and Anderson in for Woakes and Dernbach making his ODI debut while for Sri Lanka Perera out and the fit again captain Dilshan back in the team and this was the final time for the legend Jayasuriya playing his final international match playing for 22 years at the top changing the game in all formats. It was Sri Lanka who won the toss and elected to put England into bat with the over-cast conditions and most likely duck-worth-lewis system having to be used should favour the side bating second. Sure enough the rain came and delayed the start by 25 minutes but we had not lost any overs by then but the match did get under way at 1.25 PM.
It was an bad start for the new captain of England as he was caught down the leg side an nick which batsman should not be hitting as Sri Lanka and Malinga taking the early break through. Trott came in at number 3 and the talk was he should not be at 3 in ODI cricket as you have 2 test players in the top 3 but determined to prove people wrong he went at his job at an positive rate. Him and Kieswetter starting to hit form and find gaps at this nice batting pitch until the heavens opened again after 7 overs with England 35-1. It was another 3 hours till the players got back on and the match was shortened to an 32 over match and duck-worth-lewis would have to be in play to revise the score slightly up at the end of the innings. The power-plays were revised as well as the first mandatory power-play being the 7 overs they batted before the stop and the batting and bowling power-plays being 3 overs each so England had to treat it like another 20/20 match in there batting as they only had 25 overs to play left.
The England batsman came out with intent after the break knowing they had to get on with the scoring. Trott was hitting the ball well until he got trapped LBW to an Lakmal bowl an couple of overs into the re-start. But Pieterson continued where Trott left off by picking up the scoring rate quickly and started to build an partnership with Kieswetter. Kieswetter looked confident and seemed to have learned from his mistakes from the 20/20 match he was hitting the ball cleanly and scoring at an good fast rate without taking too many chances and when he did take chances it was more calculated ones. By 36 balls the pair put on an 50 partnership as they were trying to get England to within sights of 200 plus. The over after there 50 partnership Kieswetter hit an brilliant straight drive 6 to reach his 50 off 45 balls 3 fours and 2 sixes. His work with Graham Thrope seemed to have paid off.
Just as these 2 were starting to take the game away from Sri Lanka an huge piece of luck as Mendis an part time bowler bowled an long hop which Pietersen saw pulled away but straight to an fielder and it nearly became 2 in 3 balls as Morgan pulled Mendis nearly to an fielder in the deep but it just fell short. Morgan knew he had to carry on where Trott after the break and Pieterson and Kieswetter were playing and did so with ease as he was able to hit spinners around this long Oval park on all sides of the ground. By the 20 over stage England were 142-3 going at over 7 an over. It was all looking good till Randiv came on and first ball of the 21st over got Kieswetter slogging an ball he should not have and hit it straight up in the air and was caught by Lakmal he put his head down in shame because he knew he played really well to get to that situation but it brought out the inform and recalled Bell in the 50 over format. Him and Morgan were both in good touch and were being positive without too much risk. They were timing the ball well and were scoring off nearly every ball keeping the rate up in 7 an over. The partnership grew to 33 when Morgan went for one big shot down the ground but only hit the bottom of the bat so it didnt have the distant to go all the way and was caught on the boundary edge by the vice captain Kandamby. An over later he was followed by the inform Bell as he got out to the old man Jayasuriya trying to sweep but Jayasuriya saw and bowled the ball slower and in line and was plum in front England and looked as if England might loss wickets quicky as the fit again Bresnan and new 20/20 captain Broad were in.
These 2 were very calm at the crease even though they didnt have too long to get in they took an 2-3 overs to get use to the pitch and conditions before really putting on the gas. The change of pace happened in the 29th over where England didnt score any boundaries but did take 1s and 2s every ball getting 9 off the 29th over getting to 194-6. The next over they got 11 runs off Malinga bowling getting 2 boundaries 1 being leg buys and other being and length ball that Bresnan swung away for 4 but England targeted Lakmal last over to get the bulk of the runs as as Bresnan got 3 boundaries and Lakmal hit 1 very wide ball which went for 5 wide's as the over went for an massive 20 runs. The damage was already done the rate was already over 7 an over when Malinga was able to get 2 wickets at the end taking Bresnan and Broad as England made 229-8 which was revised up to 232 for Sri Lanka to chase in 32 overs.
The England bowlers knew some early wickets make the job very difficult for Sri Lanka to chase this big score and that is what England did. Anderson back after being dropped in the world cup for poor form came back with an point to prove as Dilshan was out 3rd ball of the match at the score of 2-1. He was followed in the next over as Bresnan got Jayasuriya being caught by an typical Jayasuriya shot by cutting an ball which Morgan caught wonderfully which ended an brilliant career of the man to turn 42 this Thursday. He was given an standing obviation by the Oval crowd. It got even better for England as in the 5th over as Anderson got 2 massive wickets as he first trapped Jayawardene for 5 and then took an impressive caught and bowled catch to get rid of Sangakkara. Sri Lanka were in big trouble at 15-4. England continued to ball accurately as by the end of the first mandatory power-play Sri Lanka were 23-4.
England took the bowling power-play straight away and continued to put pressure on the two batsman Kandamby and the talented Mathews. Mathews tried to push the score forward while Kandamby was playing an strange test like innings. Mathews was playing well until the debutante in ODI cricket Dernbach broke the partnership with an super diving effort by Anderson. With that wicket hopes had all but gone for Sri Lanka and the send off for Jayasuriya would not be an fairy-tale ending for him. Mendis the new man in and was not really able to show any fight. Him and Kandamby seemed more play test style and wanting to keep his wicket than try and win the match. Swann was able to break this resistance as he took Mendis in the 17th over at the score at 57-6. An couple more wickets followed as Sri Lanka were in danger of not making 100 Kulasekara went out for 5 to Anderson bowling and Kandamby strange innings gave Dernbach his second wicket in debut at the score of 69-8. But Randiv and Malinga made sure they didnt get bowled out for less than 100 as they batted quite well and very entertaining way. In fact they made the highest partnership in the Sri Lankan innings. They made an 50 partnership in 28 balls Malinga hitting off 15 balls and Randiv 24. The partnership was broken by Swann as Malinga went for one too many shots and was caught by the substitute Bopara and then Swann invited Randiv to hit one he went down the pitch missed the ball and Kieswetter did the rest for Sri Lanka to be bowled out for 121.
It was an good team effort by England as they move on to Headingley next for an day match there. Anderson was given man of the match for his 4 wickets and his diving catch he took as lead the bowling attack superbly. The only concern for England will be Broad's form. He could not take any wickets and the Sri Lanka batsman found him easy to hit. Sri Lanka will have to think of changes. They need an new opener as Jayasuriya is retired now and there middle order will cause for concern. England lead this ODI series 1-0 with 4 matches remaining.
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