England vs Sri Lanka, 2nd Test

First topic message reminder :

Venue
Riverside Ground, Chester-le-Street

Dates
27th - 31st 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 S Ravi
TV umpire - RJ Tucker
Match referee - AJ Pycroft
Reserve umpire - TBC



Weather
Friday 14C Cloudy
Saturday 15C Cloudy
Sunday 15C Cloudy
Sunday 14C Some Rain
Monday 13C Some Rain



Form

England - LWDWLW
Sri Lanka - LLWWLL



Teams:

England - 1) Alastair Cook (capt), 2) Alex Hales, 3) Nick Compton, 4) Joe Root, 5) James Vince, 6) Jonny Bairstow, 7) Moeen Ali, 8) Chris Woakes, 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 Milinda Siriwardana, 8 Rangana Herath, 9 Shaminda Eranga, 10 Nuwan Pradeep 11 Suranga Lakmal



Pending Milestones:

Alastair Cook needs 20 runs to become the 12th player - and first Englishman - to 10,000 in Tests.
Moeen Ali needs 51 runs to reach 1,000 in Tests.
Rangana Herath needs one wicket to become the third Sri Lankan to 300 in Tests.

Beautiful by Moeen to knock out the off peg.

Seven away. Not inconceivable that England will polish off the series tonight.

Get one of these and I'd reckon a finish tonight is more likely than not.

Nearly one more then !

Matthews very keen to take that single and get away from Anderson...don't blame him after the last two balls

Duty281 wrote:Beautiful by Moeen to knock out the off peg.

Seven away. Not inconceivable that England will polish off the series tonight.

Particularly for Alfie - just in case Moeen gets an injury this summer, you could do worse than have a look at the current Somerset v Surrey scorecard.

guildfordbat wrote:

Duty281 wrote:Beautiful by Moeen to knock out the off peg.

Seven away. Not inconceivable that England will polish off the series tonight.

Particularly for Alfie - just in case Moeen gets an injury this summer, you could do worse than have a look at the current Somerset v Surrey scorecard.

Ah well ...I did glance at it a while back and noted your chaps had grabbed three early wickets ...presume from your post they went on with the job ? Checking now...

Wow ! Extraordinary ...Wonder what Olly will make of that ? Probably keep the skipper in the team for a while now

What on earth is going on with the pitch at Taunton ?

Sl looking well on top now. As unmoving as an ancient oak tree.

I'm starting to be reminded of this test match:

http://www.espncricinfo.com/ci/engine/current/match/216994.html

Four down. Finn takes a bloody wicket. Silva out for a dogged 60.

190/4; still trail by 207.

Eng might have to bat again doody. A target of 4 or something.

And I'm sure England will struggle with such a task!

Sri Lanka will probably start off with Herath getting a hat-trick.

Well, well...Sri Lanka have remembered how to bat at last! Looks like England will have to bat again after all.

Still, its hard to see SL setting a big total to chase...not much more than 100-150.

Or perhaps not, as Anderson captures the captain. Lovely.

Five away.

Indeed - a big wicket there! Perhaps SL's best chance of posting a big total.

Last 2 recognised batsmen in now, neither of whom have impressed so far. Get one of these and England are into the tail.

Conditions have been ideal for them really. Hard to see how they won't post a chase for England.

Sri Lanka counter-attacked for a spell, 309/5 at stumps.

Only trail by 88 now, it has been a spirited resistance. Chandimal is 54*.

England will hope for a clinical spell in the first hour. Another 200 runs or so could make it somewhat nerve-wracking...

It was good to see SL show some fight, Silva in particular I thought battled well and Matthews is a lovely player.

England still well on top, but a poor couple of sessions from them tomorrow will see it become a little more interesting (SL's long tail still needs to be considered here)

Batting conditions pretty easy now ... and the negative side to enforcing the follow on is being shown , as England's bowlers have been out there for a fair while and are showing a little tiredness...

That said ; if Bairstow had held on to that chance from Chandimal it might be just about over !
Frustrating : I thought Bairstow had been keeping pretty well in this match ; but he has kept up this habit of missing at least one very catchable chance per match. Really should have held that one after doing well to get back and get both hands to it.

Starting to look as if England will have to bat again.

Well, if nothing else it should give Cook the chance to get his 10k.

Very positive display from Chandimal - deserves to get his ton. Herath can hang around so he has a good chance of doing so.

Chandimal is indeed a good player ; though like all of his teammates he has taken a while to get accustomed to English conditions. And of course those conditions have been a good deal kinder the last few hours.
Moeen coming on now for an important spell : so far today only Anderson has looked likely to take wickets so it really is time for the spinner to lend a hand...

Finn isn't having a good game

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:Finn isn't having a good game

Maybe he still hasn't fully recovered from his injury. Distinct lack of the pace and hostility he has shown in the past.

Wonder what is wrong with Finn ? Just doesn't look right at all : pace is down , and apart from a burst after tea yesterday he's been pretty tame.

Actually Chandimal (and even Herath ! ) is making all the bowlers look fairly tame at present. Slightly worrying for England that Sri Lanka have been able to wear them down like this ; and it might be said to show up the limitations of Moeen as a wicket taking option when the opponent has no need to hurry. He is getting some turn ; but you wouldn't say they are exactly struggling with him...
Perhaps they will get overconfident ; otherwise I wonder where a wicket is coming from.

Chandimal on a very nervous 99 ...

But he glides one away at last and a well deserved 100

Congrats Dinesh. Great innings in the circumstances.

Great session for Sri Lanka !

Wonder how many England will have to chase ? That's if they ever get these two out

alfie wrote:Great session for Sri Lanka !

Wonder how many England will have to chase ?  That's if they ever get these two out

Is there another new ball due soon? Hope so for England's sake...

Shouldn't think it will be more than 150.

Blimey Vince made a right mess of that up and under ! Horrible effort ...Anderson must be fuming...

Good fifty Herath

England this has been poo

dyrewolfe wrote:

alfie wrote:Great session for Sri Lanka !

Wonder how many England will have to chase ?  That's if they ever get these two out

Is there another new ball due soon? Hope so for England's sake...

Shouldn't think it will be more than 150.

Not for ages - if they're waiting on a new ball Sri Lanka will have 600 ! Anderson looking sharp since lunch and you'd fancy him for the breakthrough ; but if they can see him off...

I know it can be hard to raise the intensity after a long spell in the field ; but England have looked too flat for my taste today. Moeen doesn't look like taking a wicket - time for Root ?

Jimmy strikes

Plumb as they get . Herath gone after a great rearguard hand

At last . And about time

That's 450 for Anderson . When wickets aren't coming easily you see that he really is the class of this attack ; England will hope he has a year or two left in those legs !

The Anderson master class continues...

Works Eranga over and knocks his stumps over comprehensively

Who needs fielders ?

Broad finally ends Chandimal's superb innings ...a swing and a miss and it kisses the off bail

Surely the End is Nigh...

And Rod Tucker gets on the field ! Mr Dar apparently unwell...

I had a feeling SL might set England a tricky total.

in recent years anything over 50 under pressure could have been tricky for us.

we shall see. these two look like they are trying to take it away from England with lots of attempted big hits.

trebellbobaggins wrote:I had a feeling SL might set England a tricky total.

in recent years anything over 50 under pressure could have been tricky for us.

we shall see.

I don't really think sixty or so will be much of a cause for nerves

Can't see these two bunnies lasting much longer. Though I suppose it may give Compton another chance to ...secure his position ? If he comes in needing only a handful of runs he's on a hiding to nothing...

going to be interesting.  sl definitely played better as soon as it was sunny and much easier.

these two will have the lead up to 100 in no time. England could yet have a bit of a choke.

Good to see Sri Lanka have had the character to fight back like this : not only gained respect ; but maybe given themselves some confidence for taking the fight to England at Lord's ?

All out now ...79 to get

if its blazing heat then lords will be very close now.  

so was making them follow on a mistake? should eng have gone back out, get 200 and out it out of sight? I suppose it depends if they wobble now.

England captain Alastair Cook has become the youngest player to score 10,000 Test runs.

Just to say well done and an hell of an achievement. And to think, many here, a few years ago wanted him to be dropped. Some can, some can't. Well done Mr Cook.

trebellbobaggins wrote:if its blazing heat then lords will be very close now.  

so was making them follow on a mistake?  should eng have gone back out, get 200 and out it out of sight?  I suppose it depends if they wobble now.

Suppose we can say in retrospect that would have been a more "ruthless" approach ...and kept the foot on the neck. But I don't think you can say it was a mistake : had a couple of chances not gone down this was over hours ago...

In a way good for England because it showed that the attack might not be quite as incisive as it had been looking. Still depends a lot on Jimmy and Broad. Woakes looked better than previously here ; but I'm not totally convinced yet. And Finn and Moeen were both very disappointing. Some work to do ; as Wood isn't due back for a while , I think.
Actually I reckon Stokes would have been handy in this innings : he has that ability to make something happen.

Good to see Cook to 10000 He'll be glad to have that milestone out of the way.

I see Swannie is flagging that Borthwick has 150 to follow on his five wickets and two centuries in the last match...

As if Compton doesn't need any more pressure

Here comes the Wobblies from eng.

And fair points Alfie.

skyeman wrote:England captain Alastair Cook has become the youngest player to score 10,000 Test runs.

Just to say well done and an hell of an achievement. And to think, many here, a few years ago wanted him to be dropped. Some can, some can't. Well done Mr Cook.

Welcome back, dear fellow.

It is indeed a remarkable achievement.

Well this was harder than expected in the end, but a good work out for the bowlers and shows we still need to keep looking at options not called Anderson and Broad

Duty281 wrote:Playing in Durham is even worse for a batsman than playing at Headingley. And it's colder.

Woakes and Finn will be properly motivated for this Test - favourable conditions and they need to showcase their ability. Compton, too, is probably on his last chance. Anderson and Broad are in tremendous form.

Sri Lanka aren't up for this.

I would never normally dabble at odds as tight as 1/4, but it is an absolute gift. Printing money in the most beautiful and extravagant form, in the greatest and most joyous game of them all.

The weather should hold. And I hope Cook holds his nerve, and bowls first if given the chance.

1/4! Should be 1/25!

Yeah, an absolute gift, though Sri Lanka might have made Cook somewhat worried during their resilient 2nd innings!

Useless fact, if Englamd beat Pakistan later this summer then they will own every single Test cricket trophy they play for.

So, with a bit of time for reflection, a decent performance but there are still some areas that England need to improve on:

Batting - converting starts into scores/good scores into big hundreds. Moeen aside, we had a couple of 80's, some scores around 40. We would be a much better side if there wasn't the habit of getting out when seemingly untroubled and losing wickets in clusters. England could have been about 320ao but for some very poor fielding, and we would probably be looking at a draw given the weather today

Wicket-keeping - Bairstow walks into the side as a batsman these days but does miss chances and is poor keeping to the spinners. Will have to be looked at before the Winter, will probably get away with it at home

Bowling - still too reliant on Anderson to make the key breakthroughs. Others need to step up and we need Finn back in rhythm

JDizzle wrote:Useless fact, if Englamd beat Pakistan later this summer then they will own every single Test cricket trophy they play for.

To get the test mace they have to win by a decent margin, partly dependant on the third test of this series too.

Then we can go back to reading comments on cricinfo about how they are rubbish because they havent won series (except the one they did) in Asia and that Broad is a cheat. Lets not forget that half the side arent really English (and Welsh) either, and that Root isnt fit to lace Kholi's boots even though he scores more runs. Ali is a pie chucker too. And Finn should be droped, as should Compton. Cook and Bairstow both have serious technical flaws. None of them will be able to stand up to a full strength Aussie pace attack. They shouldnt have dropped KP either. Why isnt whichever player who scored a century for Surrey this week playing?
Probably the most unworthy number one test side ever, expect possibly the last time they managed it.
Didnt they lose tho the West Indies at some point in history? How can they be number one if they lost a test?

Its not like anyone outside the TMS box cares about test cricket anyway.

You missed another key cricinfo theme - Anderson the pie-chucking green-top bully, who is the worst bowler to take any Test wickets let alone 450