Sri Lanka's bowlers applied the tightest of tourniquets in their crucial quarter-final clash with England, as an attack featuring four front-line slow bowlers left their opponents scrambling
for singles in a bid to post a defendable total in Colombo. At the halfway mark of their innings, England had pushed along to 89 for 2, with Jonathan Trott's calm persona drawing a gutsy response from Ravi Bopara, with whom he had added 58 in 16 overs for the third wicket.In a carnival atmosphere at the Premadasa Stadium, Andrew Strauss won a toss that the ground statistics suggested could have been crucial, with 36 out of 49 completed matches going to the side batting first, including 14 of the last 18 day-night fixtures. However, for that to happen again, England will need to get enough runs on the board to resist the massive experience of Sri Lanka's top-order, and Strauss himself was never able to settle in one of his scratchiest one-day knocks of all time.
Despite enjoying a fine tournament to date, Strauss's ambitions were thwarted from the outset as Sri Lanka opened their bowling with a spinner for the first time in the tournament to date. Tillakaratne Dilshan started with a maiden as he found the perfect length right from the outset, and Strauss already seemed resigned to ugly heaves through the leg-side when Dilshan beat him on precisely that shot in the eighth over, to send the captain back for 5 from 19 balls.
At the other end, Ian Bell became Strauss's third opening partner of the campaign, after Kevin Pietersen and Matt Prior, and he launched his innings in fine style with a first-ball flick through square leg for four as Lasith Malinga strayed onto his pads. Angelo Mathews, though several notches slower than Malinga, also provided enough pace to pick the gaps, as Bell added two more boundaries in an attractive and promising 25 from 32 balls. But, just when he seemed set for a big performance, Bell chipped Mathews limply to midwicket, as England floundered to 32 for 2 in the mandatory Powerplay - their lowest total in the tournament to date.
Trott's sang froid was well suited to the situation, as he backed himself to work the ones and twos in a boundary-less start to his innings, but Bopara at the other end was far less comfortable with the tempo. He cut Rangana Herath sweetly through point for four, but might have fallen twice in two balls in Herath's next over, as an lbw appeal was deemed to be missing leg (although the decision would have stayed on-field) before Bopara missed a cut that zipped millimetres past his off stump. Herath also had another lbw appeal that was this time sent for a review, but Bopara had got far enough down the pitch to be safe.
Muttiah Muralitharan, in what could be his final appearance of his legendary 19-year career, entered the attack in the 19th over and started with customary menace and poise, as England braced themselves for another intense struggle. Any total in excess of 200 could be defendable on this deck, especially with the quality of slow bowling that Graeme Swann and James Tredwell produced against West Indies. But there's a long way to go before England can think of that sort of score.
Sri Lanka 1 Upul Tharanga, 2 Tillakaratne Dilshan, 3 Kumar Sangakkara (capt & wk), 4 Mahela Jayawardene, 5 Angelo Mathews, 6 Thilan Samaraweera, 7 Chamara Silva, 8 Rangana Herath, 9 Lasith Malinga, 10 Muttiah Muralitharan, 11 Ajantha Mendis.
England 1 Andrew Strauss (capt), 2 Ian Bell, 3 Jonathan Trott, 4 Ravi Bopara, 5 Eoin Morgan, 6 Matt Prior (wk), 7 Luke Wright, 8 Tim Bresnan, 9 Graeme Swann, 10 James Tredwell, 11 Chris Tremlett.
