England in Sri Lanka

[surendar]

Must be a pretty terrible pitch? Or is is just a terrible batting performance by SL. They seemed in decent form in Aussie.

I remember reading in cricinfo that, it is Murali's best home venue, but Sri Lanka's worst venue. Latter part has been coming true but have to see whether former part comes true. Hoggard was terrific.

 

[SciD]

Murli has taken 205 wickets in last 25 test matches played in Sri Lanka. Man this guy will definately trouble England as it was shown by the few overs he bowled in end of day.

 

[Sureshot]

Gee I feel sorry for sanga. Thats twice in 2 weeks he's had to salvage the innings. If just one top order player can stick around. He's in sublime touch just needs a few partners so he can bat around them.

Malinga unlucky. Should've had Vaughn. Looked pretty dead. Other than for that once the shine wears off it shouldn't be too difficult to bat. KP and the rest could be dangerous. As usual murali will have to take wickets unless Vaas or Malinga has a blinder.

I felt sorry for Rauf, it was close, and there were two noises and it didn't sound right. I don't think the replays were conclusive, either.

 

[RoboRocks]

Successful day for England. The bowlers were brilliant this morning and despite Cook, England have had a great day with Bell looking in good order.

 

[SciD]

I think Bell is Englands best player against spin so his wicket will definately be crucial for Sri Lanka. Vaughn is looking good also.

 

[evertonfan]

As cliched as it sounds, England's final total will depend heavily on how Pietersen bats tomorrow.

 

[0601731]

i think bell holds the key.

 

[Sureshot]

As cliched as it sounds, England's final total will depend heavily on how Pietersen bats tomorrow.

What we must avoid is a collapse, especially one orchestrated by Vaas/Maliinga/Fernando. We have to put as many runs on the board this innings (as obvious as that sounds) because in the 4th innings Murali will be dangerous. If we can get 300 I'll be ecstatic. 230 needs to be our setting stone though.

 

[Monty57]

A great day by england. Great opening bowling by Hoggard and then good bowling by Panersar. And good batting by us at the end of the day. I never imagned this. Thanks you austrailia for roughing them up too

 

[evertonfan]

Three test series in the subcontinent are often decided by one game. A good batting performance tomorrow and this could be that game. If we are still batting by Monday then we are in with a real chance of winning this game.

 

[Sureshot]

We won't be batting till Monday, Matt. This isn't that good a pitch, average scores are quite low at Kandy. On the other hand IF we did bat all of tomorrow it'd be one of our best batting performances. Bell looked in wonderful touch, if he bats till tea he could get 150.

 

[evertonfan]

Oh don't get me wrong, us batting till Monday is very unlikely. But you never know, all it takes is for Bell and Vaughan to make it hard work for the Sri Lankans tomorrow morning and then for Pietersen to come in and play one of his special innings.

But back down to earth, i'd gladly take 300.

 

[dikon]

But back down to earth, i'd gladly take 300.

Likewise.Although chasing 200 plus on there is going to be difficult so we need to get all we can out of this first innings.

 

[PhilD123]

Great day for England, Hoggard was superb and the key was getting 5 wickets with the new ball. I'm still eering on the side of caution though, it was spinning considerably for Panesar, so it's going to turn sidewards for Murali. Malinga is a big threat with his reverse swing, so there's going to be no rest even after ball goes old. I'd say we need at least 250 simply because of Murali in the last innings.

I'm really not sure about our pace attack, they've all done really well when given the chance and deserve to be in there. However, I think its all a bit samey. I'd have gone for either Harmison or Swann to add some variation for later in the innings, we were really helped by bowling first this time round. The problem is, I'm not sure who you'd drop.I think we could struggle bowling them out in their 2nd innings.

I don't mean to be negative, but I think I'm being realistic. Got up at 5 this morning, I think it'll be half 5 tomorrow morning. Anyway, overall an excellent day. Vaughan got away with one I think at the end, but it was close so I guess he was right to get the benefit. And to those doubting Vaughan, I think he's probably the most pleasing on the eye England batsman, his hundreds always show some timing and class.

 

[Skater]

I wouldn't bother getting up especially for this match when play doesn't close until 12.00pm.

I get up at 6.00am for other matches though, like Australian and Indian ones.