England vs Sri Lanka, 1st Test

First topic message reminder :

Venue
Headingley, Leeds

Dates
19th - 23rd May 2016

TV Coverage
Live: Sky Sports 2 from 10am Daily
Highlights: Channel 5 19:00 Daily (also Sky Sports on differing channels and at differing times)



Officials

Umpires - Aleem Dar and RJ Tucker
TV umpire - S Ravi
Match referee - AJ Pycroft
Reserve umpire - PJ Hartley



Weather




Form

England - LWDWL
Sri Lanka - LLWWL



Teams:

England - 1 Alastair Cook (capt), 2 Alex Hales, 3 Nick Compton, 4 Joe Root, 5 James Vince, 6 Ben Stokes, 7 Jonny Bairstow (wk), 8 Moeen Ali, 9 Stuart Broad, 10 Steven Finn, 11 James Anderson

Sri Lanka - 1 Dimuth Karunaratne, 2 Kaushal Silva, 3 Kusal Mendis, 4 Dinesh Chandimal (wk), 5 Angelo Mathews (capt), 6 Lahiru Thirimanne, 7 Dasun Shanaka, 8 Rangana Herath, 9 Dushmantha Chameera, 10 Shaminda Eranga 11 Nuwan Pradeep



Pending Milestones:

Alastair Cook needs 36 runs to become the 12th player - and first Englishman - to 10,000 in Tests. If he gets there in this Test, he will be the youngest to do so.
Rangana Herath needs three wickets to become the third Sri Lankan to 300 in Tests.

Another beautiful delivery from Broad, another safe pouch for the keeper.

12/3 - Australia in disguise?

And three ...

The Sri Lankan's main pair at the crease now ; do they ever need a stand !

If we can get one of these two early we're well in business

I am not writing SL off yet - they have their two best players out there and will feel if they can even get to 250 and take early wickets they would be able to put England under pressure

Just switched and I see my guy Vince having a bowl. He's actually proved to be a useful bowler for Hampshire at times.

An expensive over but created 2 chances!

Four down, Stokes first ball after tea.

But now they're off for bad light, even though the floodlights are on because.....cricket logic!

Sometimes cricket does make itself look a bit foolish

75/4, the game drifting. England need some impetus and inspiration as these two batsman get settled.

There we go! First LBW of the match goes to Jimmy in the first over of his new spell. Goes past Kapil Dev.

77/5.

Hmmm...a review would have reprieved Mathews, but he didn't use it.

Stupendous delivery to remove the debutant first ball. Delicious swing.

81/6 - Anderson on a hat-trick.

Closer to the game now that most expected.

Cook will have an eye on 10,000 tomorrow

Duty281 wrote:Sri Lanka to be rolled out for 119. Anderson with five.

Start as they mean to go on!

Not a million miles away!

7 down now, Anderson with 4.

Sri Lanka still need 16 to avoid the follow-on - I'd actually be in favour (quite rarely for this situation) of enforcing it if the opportunity arises.

Broad coming on at the other end now, good move.

Herath at 8?  

Don't hold out much hope for the rest of the tail.....

Smart take from Finn, making full use of his extravagant height.

8 down, still 9 needed to avoid the follow-on.

There's the ninth, a clone of a dismissal.

Number ten and eleven at the crease, Broad and Anderson both on 4 wickets.

Id say have another bat to be honest. A few could do with time at the crease and England have a hectic schedule upcoming

Rod Tucker hasn't had a very good day

91 all out, Anderson with five.

Well done England. Made the most of the favourable conditions, unlike the Sri Lankans.

Follow-on surely has to be enforced.

Duty281 wrote:Sri Lanka to be rolled out for 119. Anderson with five.

Start as they mean to go on!

Well called, Duty!

guildfordbat wrote:

Duty281 wrote:Sri Lanka to be rolled out for 119. Anderson with five.

Start as they mean to go on!

Well called, Duty!

Ta, now let's hope for some consistency.

Well consistency with cricket logic. Off for bad light again, unlikely to get any more play in today.

Floodlights on and we go off

Cricket really is stupid ain't it

guildfordbat wrote:

Duty281 wrote:Sri Lanka to be rolled out for 119. Anderson with five.

Start as they mean to go on!

Well called, Duty!

Indeed a great prediction ! If a little conservative...

I'm taking some credit for the collapse by the way. Had turned in at tea ; but woke up and came back to the game ... in time to see Anderson and Broad do the demolition job.

All very neat : England won't mind the call off too much - fresh bowlers and an undamaged ball when they eventually restart the match. I gather the forecast is a bit rough ; but surely with three days to play they'll get enough play to finish the job from here ? Follow on was a no brainer - reckon even the modern theorists will agree with us old-timers this time

well I knew...Lanka's batting was weak in such conditions......but so pathetic......that they won't avoid a F/O
that said anderson is very high quality bowler.

Only a lot of rain can save SL

Follow on was the right call under the circumstances. Only bowled something like 36 overs in the innings, so nothing to fatigue the bowlers. Conditions were favourable perhaps to nick another wicket or two before the close until bad light intervened, and our bowlers are still coming back fresh in the morning.

Road map for Sri Lanka now: runs and rain. Have to look to get at least 400, so setting England a target in the 4th innings, and at the same time hope that a whole day is lost to poor weather, so putting a bit of time pressure on the game. Not sure there is enough quality and experience in depth to manage to bat the required day and a half against our attack if the conditions keep being favourable for seam and swing, but this has to be their mindset.

A question - who is currently ahead in the running for MOTM? Bairstow scored near enough half of our runs and gave us a target, while Anderson took 5 for naff all, to completely tilt the game in England's favour.
Personally, I'd have Bairstow ahead, especially given the back story and how many other batsmen have made the pitch look impossible (I don't think it's bad, but just a difficult one to get started on, especially if the ball nips a bit)

alfie wrote:

guildfordbat wrote:

Duty281 wrote:Sri Lanka to be rolled out for 119. Anderson with five.

Start as they mean to go on!

Well called, Duty!

Indeed a great prediction !    If a little conservative...

Always my trouble, I doubt England too much.

dummy_half wrote:Follow on was the right call under the circumstances. Only bowled something like 36 overs in the innings, so nothing to fatigue the bowlers. Conditions were favourable perhaps to nick another wicket or two before the close until bad light intervened, and our bowlers are still coming back fresh in the morning.

Road map for Sri Lanka now: runs and rain. Have to look to get at least 400, so setting England a target in the 4th innings, and at the same time hope that a whole day is lost to poor weather, so putting a bit of time pressure on the game. Not sure there is enough quality and experience in depth to manage to bat the required day and a half against our attack if the conditions keep being favourable for seam and swing, but this has to be their mindset.

A question - who is currently ahead in the running for MOTM? Bairstow scored near enough half of our runs and gave us a target, while Anderson took 5 for naff all, to completely tilt the game in England's favour.
Personally, I'd have Bairstow ahead, especially given the back story and how many other batsmen have made the pitch look impossible (I don't think it's bad, but just a difficult one to get started on, especially if the ball nips a bit)

Probably have Bairstow ahead as well, it is such a tough pitch to bat on. Anderson bowled wonderfully, and extracted the most from the conditions, but he had such conditions in his favour.

It is forecast to bucket down on Saturday, but Sunday and Monday look to be good days for cricket. A chase of 150 could potentially be difficult for England, but Sri Lanka would need 357 to make that happen, which looks rather unlikely.

Weather doesn't look promising today - might get a bit of play early before the rain arrives, and a chance of it improving late, but looks like if we get 20 overs we'll be lucky...

Bairstow well ahead as Motm I would say. Looked like he was batting on a different pitch to anyone else. Broad/Anderson come more into the frame if they ger ten for as part of an innings win

Anyone in the area able to shed any light on the weather? (BBC has rain all day)

James100 wrote:Anyone in the area able to shed any light on the weather? (BBC has rain all day)

Rain will affect play today I would think (start delayed until 11.15 am) but in any case I can only see this match going one way now - England win by quite probably an innings so plenty of time to get the job done.

Anderson removes the first wicket

And the second.

Can't envisage too much play being possible beyond the lunch break for today.

Bit like walking into the buzzsaw for the SL, facing the best in these foreign conditions.

With Stokes off and Finn bowling carp, there is chance for SL to bat some time and give the weather a chance.

Wonder if Ball might get a look this series, Finn pretty ordinary up to now

Pretty ordinary from England, 2 wickets down, but Mendis dropped 3 times, 2 of which really shouldve been taken

Sounds pretty bad other than Anderson. An extended rain break is probably a good thing at this stage. If one other bowler can get in rhythm the innings win is still likely

Well two dropped catches in that session, both should have been snaffled.

One of the drops was off Finn who is largely a confidence player, and he seems to have been bowling without any for much of this test.

Sri Lanka still have a deficit of 130. They'll be eyeing at least another 280 runs to make this match interesting, and a lot of that will be reliant on these two at the crease and the two batsmen to come after.

Back on at 15:30, and we may actually get a couple of hours of play in.

Though, because of fabled cricket logic, they'll be taking a twenty-minute break after only being on the field for an hour and a bit.

Chandimal plays on, England seven away.

And Mathews out for five, big wicket for England. Bairstow holds on this time.

Huge wicket by Broad - Mathews gone for just 5 and SL 93-4.

Don't see them setting a big total to chase now.

Mendis now plays on for 53.

Two new batsmen at the crease. Can't see this resistance lasting long.

Wow - Anderson's third - equally huge!

Gets Mendis to play on, ending his gutsy stand. SL 93-5.

England may not have to bat again at this rate. Only the light can deny England now...

Shananka gone - SL 101-6.

Anderson's 9th wicket in the match and Bairstow's 9th catch (if he gets one more he will join AB de Villiers as the only players to score centuries and take 10 catches in a match).

This will be wrapped up fairly soon.

Anderson 9/44, but Bairstow should still get MOTM!

Duty281 wrote:Anderson 9/44, but Bairstow should still get MOTM!

A close thing between Bairstow and Billy the Barmy Army trumpeter. Enjoyed his renditions of the Jurassic Park theme and the Imperial March.

Actually wouldn't begrudge Jimmy the MOTM award as he's made a massive contribution too.

Finn makes Anderson wait for his 10-for by softening Herath up (nasty blow on the elbow) then gets him next ball.

SL 116-7 at tea. Not much more resistance to come.