Story Sri Lanka aim to become the best (ICC2006)

[Hooper]

Lol, Doubt it We'll see aye

 

[Jaztheman]

3 day Friendly against Durham

Jayawardene, Jayasuriya, Dilshan, Tillakuratne, Samaraweera, Weerakoon and Vaas out. Tharanga, Waragoda, Arnold, Vandort, Maharof and Zoysa in.

I won the toss and Elected to bowl.

Vandort makes an impact straight away with the catch of Lewis off Malinga's bowling, 18-1. Shortly after Benkenstein is bowled, followed quickly after by Maher for 47. Injury strikes as Zoysa strains his back in vain and is expected to be out for 8 days. Coetzer is then beaten all ends up as is Collingwood as Durham begin to panic on 96-5, But they soldier on to lunch 133-5. Muralitharan on 2-29. Muchall and Mustard shortly go as Muralitharan proves a treat. Kapugudera ,a specialist opening batsmen, gets bridges for 25, who is shortly met at the pavillion by Killeen, Muralitharan then wraps up the tail brilliantly ,getting Breese for 84 in the process, to get his 5fer as Durham scamper to get 269 all out.

One over till tea which we safely see to be 2-0 at tea on day one and trail by 267 runs. For the second time in two matches during the 3rd session on day one we have been offered the light in which I refuse... Again. Atapattu soon falls, but we wend up notching 101 runs for 1 wicket in the session to be 103-1 at the end of day 1 trailing now by 166 runs, with Kumar on 56*(122) A 118 run 2nd wicket Partnership ends when Tharanga is run out for 55(100) Althought replays suggest that his bat was down just in time and the wrong decision had been made. Waragoda then falls for 26 whilst we make it till luch on 235-3 with Kumar Sangakkara now on 133* 34 minutes into the session and Kapugedera goes for 34 to Paul Collingwood of England, And explosive innings from Arnold see's him go off 62(77) involving 8 fours and one six. At tea day 2 we are 136 runs in the lead on 405-5, Kumar not out on 208 sadly after thought because of poor communicatoin skills Kumar Sangakkara is then run out on 215, We then decide to struggle to make 490 all out.

Last ball of Day 2 ,Durham only need to face 4 overs, and lewis yet again has gone early caught in front by malinga for 1. Maher soon after goes the same way, until Muralitharan gets Benkenstein caught by Tharanga at Silly point. Afterwards Arnold suprisingly zips the bowl off the wicket and gets Paul Collingwood for 25, As the 2 spinners go on a spinning rampage, Durham scramble to 110-7 at Lunch Day 3 11 runs behind Sri Lanka with Arnold on 2-15 and Muralitharan 2-25. Muralitharan then wraps up the tail with the 3 last wickets in record time to claim 5-33, his first 10fer of the season with Sri Lanka.

 

[Hooper]

Nice innings by Sanga. Gave'em a few chances but

 

[gamerkid22]

Wow SriLanka in terrific form. Murali devastating the opposition with his spin and then the batsmen do their job. Great going and nice to see quick updates.

 

[nanee]

What an explosive innings by Kumar Sangakkara, and you got a massive total, well done on the three wins although I had to just look at the Sccreenies as don't have enough time to read all the text, got to go to restaraunt lol Keep it up.

 

[surendar]

Murali's typical way of destructing the opponents Keep up the good works Jaz..

 

[Jaztheman]

1st Test Match against England

Team: Jayasuriya, Sangakkara, Jayawardene, Samaweera, Arnold, Dilshan, Tillakaratne, Vaas, Malinga, Weerakoon, Muralitharan

I won the toss and elected to bowl.

An opening Stand of 66 between Andrew Strauss and Marcus Trescothick ended when Strauss was caught off Murali for 40. Then the big wicket of Kevin Pietersen as he went for 7 before England found themselves 116-3 at Lunch, Marcus also going late on in the session. Some strange reason, Cook was batting at 5 but Bell was next to go for 28 to the slinger, we call Malinga. Flintoff fell for 41 and was the only wicket after Bell as England fot 220-5 at tea. The something quite astonishing happened. England lost their last 5 wickets for 17 runs as Murali got 6-83 and Weerakoon got 3-80. England all out for 237.

Sangakkara came and went for 2, but soon after Sanath Jayasuriya went aswell and I found ourselves at the end of the day on 169-2 before a great 121 3rd Wicket Partnership left Jayawardene gone for 41. But before England were done Samaraweera went in the last over of the session for 78. At lunch Day 2 we were struggling on 157-4, shortly after Arnold and Dilshan fell as we found ourselves 174-6. Then a quick collapse to 181-8 before great tailend work to get 227 all out, only 10 runs behind, But still every little counts.

England started Strongly again with and 72 opening stand. Then 2 quick wickets gave us some hope on 89-3. At the end of Day 2, England were 117-3, 127 runs ahead, so they were in the controlling seat. Nothing much happened in session one apart from loads of runs until England were steaming. Finally, a 147 run 4th wicket Partnership ends with bell going for 72. Unfortunatley, Tea Day 3 and England are 298 runs ahead with 5 wickets remainging. Not looking good. Early on Day 4 and we bowl them out for 389 leaving us with exactly 400 to get thanks to the spinners getting plenty more of wickets but mainly to Muralitharan once again who got 6 wickets, once again.

At Lunch on Day 4 we ended up on 63-0 needing 337 to win. Kumar unfortunatly enough went straight after on 25, then two quick wickets in England's favour leave us with a very tall mountain to climb. Somehow we needed to get 263 runs from somewhere. Samaraweera then goes after making a very good contribution again in the 70's. 200-5 halfway to the total we so desperatly needed. Not looking good. 192 off the last day with 5 wickets in hand. After a decent 69 run Partnership, Arnold goes for 63, which was well deserved. 131 to win with 4 wickets remaining. 2 sessions left needing 108 to win, all up to Tillakaratne who could become a hero here. Vaas soon goes after making a very valuable score of 31. 75 now to win with 3 wickets left in hand. 59 runs left with 2 wickets in hand as Malinga goes. 39 runs to win with one wicket left, sajeewa Weerakoon goes, leaving Tillakaratne and Muralitharan to try and save us. Tea on Day 5, nice time to have a Roast dinner and to tell them what to do. I have given them a tactic, for Muralitharan to defend and for Tillakaratne to keep strike. We need 14 runs to win with one wicket left form tea. Need 4 to win with plenty of time...


... And a Boundray! Tillakarante brings up his century by winning the match. Muralitharan gets the Man Of The Match award which he thourouly deserved for his 12 wickets and pretty decent batting when needed.

 

[covlad-99]

Sanga has lost his form

 

[treva]

Murali is a beast lol. he has been in every single best innings figures so far I think Fantastic win thanks to a great knock by Tillikaratne

 

[ShinRyuu]

Good Start Jazy Wazy

cmon lads

 

[freddiw]

great wins in preparation for the test series
maybe could be brightened up as a story
but like it good old Sangakarra big runs is what he will get against England

 

[Highlander999]

What a finish. I like the presentation how it is. Nice to see a Lanka story on the scene

 

[Gilly Fan]

Wow, you've got into things straight away. Looks good, Jaz.

 

[surendar]

One man show in bowling department by getting 12/20 wickets.. Brilliant Murali... Fantastic knock by Tillakaratne under pressure.

 

[WORLD CHAMPIONS]

That was a thriller Murli in top form, briiliant batting by Tilekaratne nice story and great presentaion Jazy