Sri Lanka 251/7
A day full of happiness for England. England got key wickets and key times and that is one of the many things that Matthew Roberts was trying to install into these men, who remember are still only raw international players, this is the first international game for many, I?m sure the new captain Usy will take them under his wing for this series.
Welcome to CricNews, I?m Simon Barrow and what a day England have had in the field today. 7 wickets have fallen and surely Sri Lanka would have gone in the worse off side.
The highlight of the day was the three wickets for the captain, U.Gee went into today with a captains face on and he has lead by example out there, it has been one of these special captains bowl. The amazing thing about this guys spell is he has bowled 20 overs in the first day, taken 3 wickets and only gone for 43 runs, which is a measly average of 2.15 per over if he can keep this up into tomorrow surely Sri Lanka will be bowled out for well under 300. Will he back it up by a captains knock, surely being a tail ender will not be in favour for him.
J Teague has also done well with the ball, he has taken 2 wickets, again he has impressive stats of 15-2-49-2 which he spell of 15 overs went for 3.27.
Lets turn our attention to the Sri Lankan quarters, Knowing that this young cricket team would be full of energy in the field surely the captain has told his team to put extra fire behind their shots, and this was seen early on when the ?keeper Sangakkara, he tried to hit the ball 7 times into the gaps but as if by magic a fielder appeared and kept Kumar at the strikers end. After the seventh ball, Kumar was on his way for a duck, which isn?t a nice feeling especially when touring, Usy was mobbed by his own team and emerged minutes later looking happy, only the imagination can tell what was said inside that huddle!
The other opener stood firm but fell at 45 to the new all-round spinner on the block Drew Davie. This pitch has started to spin earlier than expected, Tharanga went for a shot and mistimed it and misread the spin and it ended up as an easy catch for the busy Ahmed.
Jayawardene(80), Samaraweera(58) and Dilshan(22) all fell to different bowlers, Jayawardene fell to Ahmed, who also had a hand in the Dilshan dismissal. Usy dismissed Samaraweera.
Vandort fell to a superb delivery by Teague, which Vandort could only hope to hit and then only hope it bounced somewhere other than the inform Ahmeds hands, it went straight in. Mubarak fell to the inform captain, who had this man caught by Briggs, superb play by all except the Sri Lankan.
Kapugedera and Vaas will be at the wicket tomorrow morning, which surely the captain will be saying keep the score down below 300 and have the last 3 wickets within the morning.
A tight day aswell, only three extras added to the Sri Lankans score, surely the England staff will be happy with that.
Thanks for joining us here this morning, and soon we will be handing over to the two Jones once again, Dean and Geraint.
I?m Simon Barrow, this is CricNews, This is one special day for these England lads, and surely they will make a good start with the bat, and take England to win 1/1 for the new management team.
Remember to email in at
[email protected] and ask anything cricket related which you don?t understand! If there is any questions or anything, please get in contact.
Once again thanks for joining me and I?m sure today?s play will show what this new England outfit can do.
