Story Sri Lanka Touring England [BLIC]

[Jamee999]

The ECB and Sri Lankan Cricket Board have today announced that Sri Lanka will tour England this season, Michael Vaughan's side are one of the best in the world, at the moment and are on a roll, after winning their last 4 Test Series, the last series defeat for them was in Sri Lanka 2003-04.

The 2 teams will play 3 Tests and 5 ODI's along with 2 Twenty20 Internationals. Sri Lanka will also play a OD Warmup Match against Holland, in Amsterdam to prepare for the Tour, this match will not be a ODI.

The England selectors have a big dilemma with 2 batting spots up for contest and 4 batsman going for them, Ian Bell, Kevin Pietersen, Mark Butcher and Graham Thorpe will all be waiting nervously by their phones in the lead-up to the squad announcement.

Sri Lanka will be hoping that their spin genius Muttiah Muralitharan will get a few pitches which suit him, but more likely will be seam and very little spin, to negate the controversial bowler.

Tour Fixtures

Warmup

Holland vs Sri Lanka
List A OD Match
Amsterdam

Twenty20 Internationals

England vs Sri Lanka
Twenty20 International
Rose Bowl

England vs Sri Lanka
Twenty20 International
Headingley

Test Matches

England vs Sri Lanka
1st Test Match
Lords'

England vs Sri Lanka
2nd Test Match
Old Trafford

England vs Sri Lanka
3rd Test Match
Trent Bridge

ODI's

England vs Sri Lanka
1st ODI
Edgebaston

England vs Sri Lanka
2nd ODI
The Oval

England vs Sri Lanka
3rd ODI
Lords'

England vs Sri Lanka
4th ODI
Headingley

England vs Sri Lanka
5th ODI
The Oval

The Cricinfo Trophy for the Test Series

 

[barmyarmy]

I'll try and get the kit made before you start the tests...

 

[MWaugh]

Holland vs Sri Lanka
List A OD Match
Amsterdam

I just want you to know im having an amster-dam good time allready. haha

 

[Jamee999]

Sri Lanka Announce 16 Man Touring Squad
Columbo, Sri Lanka -- The 16 men who are going to tour England this year have been announced, Marvan Atapattu, will once again lead the players. At 1.30 pm local time the following squad was announced, to land in Amsterdam then travel on to Heathrow.

Marvan Atapattu (c)
Kumar Sangakarra (wk)
Sanath Jayasuria
Mahela Jayawardene
Russell Arnold
Tillakaratne Dilshan
Saman Jayantha
Thilina Kandamby
Chaminda Vaas
Muttiah Muralitharan
Dilhara Fernando
Upul Chandana
Nuwan Zoysa
Nuwan Kulasekara
Farveez Maharoof
Rangana Herath

Notably, contracted players, Lasith Malinga and Thilan Samaweera are not included in the tour squad.

Holland have named their 13 man squad for the OD match, acting as a warm-up for Sri Lanka.

Roland Lefebvre (c)
Reinoit Scholte (wk)
Bas Zuiderent
Nick Stathan
Klass van Noortwijk
Dean van Bunge
Tim de Leede
Hendrik Mol
Feiko Kloppenburg
Edgar Schiferli
Adeel Raja
Luuk van Troost
Sebastiaan Gooke

It will certainly be a test for the Dutch team, but they bat down to Number 10 and will be hoping to put up a good fight.

Holland captain ; Roland Lefebvre

 

[Jamee999]

Sri Lanka start tour with a good total

Amsterdam, Holland-- Sri Lanka have started their tour of England with a bang this morning, making 284-8 against Holland.

The 2 teams were geed up for the match and put out 2 very strong teams, here in Amsterdam.



The match started with a bang, a confident on drive from Atapattu starting the team off well, but he went soon after, a confident catch at point, which showed that the Dutch team, who rarely play as a unit, were very excited. Soon after that former captain, Jayasuria and Levebvre engaged in a bit of friendly sledging, Jayasuria went on to hit a 50 and Roland to take 4 wickets so both were boosted by this confrontation.





The really great knock of the innings came from Mahela Jayawardene, the Lankan scored 88 off the same amount of balls, he was part of 2 great partnerships, 91 for the 4th wicket with Russell Arnold and 80 for the fifth wicket with Jayantha, in fact all 3 "Jaya's" : Jayasuria (55), Jayawardene (88) and Jayantha (59*) made 50's coming at around a run a ball. Mahela eventually went trying to lift one over the 3rd man boundary but it fell short and landed in the hands of fly slip.


Holland require 285 to win off 50 overs (5.7 an over)

 

[Jamee999]

Sri Lanka bowl Holland away

Sri Lanka have won the List-A match by 152 runs, dismissing Holland for just 132. Chaminda Vaas stared taking 5-73.

Vaas took the first wicket, Van Bunge plumb LBW for 10.



This was never going to be an important match for the Sri Lankans but it seems that most of their batsman hit form, and the bowlers also looked in good flow, allthough Vaas did get carted around. For the home side, captain Lefebvre was top scorer with a swashbuckling 39* off just 28 balls.

The Dutch team are always welcoming of matches against High-class oppositon and I'm sure they will have taken a lot out of the match.




There will now be a small awards ceremony, with Jonathon Agnew from Test Match Special, who covered the match for BBC 5Live Sports Extra.

Agnew: Hello and welcome to this presentation ceremony for this One Day Warm-up match, between Holland and Sri Lanka! We have 1 award to present, the Man of the Match Award. There were many conteneders, Roland Lefebvre for his 4-40 and 39*, Chaminda Vaas for his 5-73. But in the end we went for MAHELA JAYAWARDENE for his 88.

*Jayawardene walks over to Agnew*

Agnew: A nice innings there today Mahela, how do you feel going into the tour of England?

Jayawardene: I fell like I am in, good form. I didn't need to slog the ball around. I just hit the ball and I felt that I played good.

Agnew: Thank you, that concludes the presentation, Sri Lanka fly on to Heathrow tomorrow, and soon they will play the first international game of the tour, a Twenty20 match at the Rose Bowl.

 

[hassan]

good one but why did Agnew say mathc between Holland vs PAKISTAN

 

[ZexyZahid]

Nice warm up. Next match against England is more interesting.

 

[Jamee999]

Hassan: There were 2 teams I considered initally for the tour, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, Sri Lanka won out in the end, I'll edit now.

Hope you're looking forward to the Twenty20 Internationals.

 

[Jamee999]

1st Twenty20 International

It's back

The 1st Twenty20 International between England and Sri Lanka, at the Rose Bowl, Southampton is preparing to start. The Rose Bowl is a new ground with a young pitch and is not yet fully "bedded in" this means that the pitch has got quite a reputation as a minefield.

A picture of the ground during last years Champions Trophy.

The 2 captains met earlier this evening to conduct the toss and exchange team sheets, lets have a look at this.



So with the first blood in the series going to England, and they will be licking their lips looking at this pitch.



The 2 captains then exchanged their teamsheets, and then gave a small comment to the media.

England
Marcus Trescothick
Andrew Strauss
Kevin Pietersen
Andrew Flintoff
Paul Collingwood
Michael Vaughan(c)
Geraint Jones(wk)
Ashley Giles
Simon Jones
Stephen Harmison
James Anderson

England really only had one major selection dilemma, Hoggard, pushing for his ODI debut, James Anderson and Simon Jones, for 2 places. In the end Hoggard was pushed aside to drinks carrier. With 2 big hitters at 3 and 4, Michael Vaughan drops down to 6.

Sri Lanka
Sanath Jayasuria
Marvan Atapattu
Kumar Sangakarra
Mahela Jayawardene
Russel Arnold
Saman Jayantha
Upul Chandana
Chaminda Vaas
Nawan Zoyza
Dilhara Fernando
Muttiah Muralitharan

Sri Lanka play 5 specialist bowlers, oddly leaving Jayasuria as the 6th. This may be because of the pitch.

We are not overly dissapointed to lose the toss as the pitch may well get worse over the evening, and leave something for Muttiah as well as for our seamers.

It's a tricky toss if you win it, because allthough we like chasing, and it looks like a tricky pitch, as Marvan said, it might dettiorate tonight. We're just gonna chuck the ball to our seamers, and Ash will have a job to do, spin is normally effective in Twenty20.

Lets start the match!

 

[HopaWhitey]

Looking forward to it!

 

[Jamee999]

England set 176 to win the first Twenty20 International!!!

England require 176 runs to win the first Twenty20 match against Sri Lanka. A great batting performance from Sanath Jayasuria and Marvan Atapattu left just one wicket down at the end of the 20 overs and a stern test for the English batsman.

The Lankans started fast with a few punishing fours and the odd six.
The middle overs were productive, with 4's a plenty, including some improvisation, and unusual roll of the bat here.



Then captain Atapattu brought up his 50 and acknowledged the crowd.



Rudi Koertzen signals a maximum by Sanath!



They say that Twenty20 is a "sloggers" game, but that is a fantastic and beautiful straight drive by Atapattu, straight over the bowlers head and into the stands.



But in the end Atapattu fell, it wasn't a fantastic delivery, but it's another wicket for Harmison, and a good catch for Anderson.



And his stats.



The new batsman arrives at the crease, and in the end does very little.



The completed innings and bowling figures.




This leaves the match intriglingly poised, with England requiring 176 at 8.8 runs an over.

 

[Jamee999]

3 wickets fall but England are on track for Twenty20 victory

Allthough the top 3 batsman are all out, England require just 70 runs to win in 10 overs.

But Marcus Trescothick fell early, run out, via a good throw from the outfield, while trying to pinch a cheeky second run.




And Andrew Strauss played a flairy straight drive.



But soon he misjudged a swinging one and was clean bowled, leaving England in a tricky hole.



However, the counter-attacking Kevin Pietersen came in, and started quickly, but perished soon after.(Check out Collingwood)




So with the innings, half way through, here is the match situation.

 

[Pak_cricketer]

good match so far lets see if England can pull it off!

 

[Jamee999]

England win the first Twenty20!

England have emerged victorious from the first Twenty20 International at the Rose Bowl, Southampton against Sri Lanka, winning by 4 wickets, with 4 balls to spare. Flintoff and Vaughan fell in a quick flurry but while Geraint Jones fell while on 15.



Paul Collingwood was hitting on, past 50 and played a fantastic innings, anchoring the innings from Number 5, hitting 76 off 36 balls and in the end scoring the winning runs.

Now we have the Man of the Match award. This has been awarded to PAUL COLLINGWOOD.

Thanks for the award, man. It's allways nice to win these, but I think it's quite hard on Jayasuria. But more importantly, we can't lose the series now, so we're gonna have to go up to Yorkshire and make sure that we don't draw it.

The next match is the Second Twenty20 International at Headingly, until then, Goodbye!