Sri Lanka v England, 2011-12
Lawrence Booth
At Galle, March 26-29, 2012. Sri Lanka won by 75 runs. Toss: Sri Lanka. Test debut: S. R. Patel.
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The Union Flag that fluttered on top of Galle's Dutch fort ought to have raised the alarm. It was the wrong way up. Done deliberately, this is supposed to mean SOS; by accident, and it's anyone's guess. For much of a game in which England plunged to their fourth straight Test defeat - their worst sequence since the 2006-07 Ashes whitewash - the batsmen seemed determined to provide their own grim twist: Save Our Sweep.
Five men fell playing a stroke that, as England pointed out with some justification, has its place on Asian pitches. But they played it too often, most perilously to full-length deliveries on the stumps: four of the five departed leg-before, with Prior the exception, creaming one into Thirimanne's midriff at short leg to signal the beginning of the end of England's fourth-innings hopes.
The chief beneficiary was Herath, whose career-best 12 for 171 made him the first slow left-armer to take ten wickets in a Test against England for 50 years. By doing little more than plugging away on a pitch that demanded caution but should not have provoked panic, Herath spun Sri Lanka to their first home win since Muttiah Muralitharan's final Test, also at Galle, in July 2010, and to their second-best match figures against England, behind Murali's 16 for 220 at The Oval in 1998. And if Murali was the more artful, Herath harnessed the zeitgeist: aim for the pads, and leave the rest to scrambled minds and the DRS. Not since Karachi in 1977-78 - when Shakoor Rana was one of the umpires - had England lost six batsmen lbw in a Test innings.
Yet Sri Lanka might have lost had it not been for Mahela Jayawardene, in his first Test as captain for three years and without so much as a fifty in 12 innings. Not long after his arrival, Sri Lanka were 15 for three. But he calmly saw off England's new-ball salvo, then found a succession of partners happy to play third fiddle (daylight was second). Even so, England were generous. With Sri Lanka 138 for five - a recovery of sorts, but still below par after winning a crucial toss - Anderson dropped a half-chance as he back-pedalled from slip after Jayawardene, on 64, had failed to cope with Swann's extra bounce. Then, on 90, he was missed by Anderson again, this time a return catch around his left ear. The next ball was deposited over long-on for six, the shot of a man keen to salt the wound.
For England, it would get worse. Desperate to take the last two wickets, they instead endured a pair of Panesar mishaps. On 147, Jayawardene pulled Anderson's third delivery with the second new ball to long leg, where Panesar, possibly dazzled by the sun, could only parry it over the rope. In the next over, fate inevitably decreed that it was Panesar who should be standing at mid-on under a steepler as Jayawardene - now 152 - miscued a heave off Broad. Down went the chance, and with it English heads, lifting only when the excellent Anderson finally did get Jayawardene to complete his 12th five-wicket haul in Tests and go past his fellow Lancastrian Brian Statham's tally of 252 into fifth place on England's all-time list.
Sri Lanka's last three wickets had added 127, while Jayawardene's 180 was streets ahead of Chandimal, who came next with 27. Not only was it his 30th Test century, but his seventh both at Galle and against England. Just as impressive as his occasionally dashing strokeplay was his mastery of the strike: while he faced 315 balls, his ten teammates faced 268 between them; and he ticked off 51 singles, 23 more than England would manage in total first time round. It was, quite simply, an innings for the ages.
This became even clearer as England subsided to 193, itself a fightback - led by Bell - from 92 for six. Without a carefree last-wicket stand of 36 between Anderson and Panesar, the deficit would have been even greater than 125. Then, when England bowled again, they kept on fighting. Broad knocked over Dilshan in the second over and, when Swann appeared as early as the seventh, he produced a beauty to bowl the left-handed Thirimanne with his second ball. It was 14 for three when Swann had Jayawardene caught at slip, and Sangakkara quickly followed. In all, 17 wickets fell on the second day, equalling the venue record. By the close, Sri Lanka - five down - led by 209.
Cheered on by a crowd of predominantly white faces on the third day - though some were by now rather red, a combination of the sun and anger at Sri Lanka Cricket's on-thehoof ticketing policy - England began to believe. And when Swann bowled Herath to pick up his sixth wicket, Sri Lanka were in effect 252 for eight. But Welagedara kept Prasanna Jayawardene company for over an hour before he was caught in the gully off Panesar, and England were further frustrated when - five deliveries later - Broad bounced out Jayawardene, caught at short leg, only for replays to reveal a no-ball. It was one of eight bowled in the match by the usually disciplined Broad; no one else overstepped all game. The 46 runs added thereafter by Jayawardene and Lakmal set England 340, eight more than they had ever made in the fourth innings to win a Test, and 87 more than any side had then managed batting fourth at Galle.
England lost Cook, given out caught behind by third umpire Bruce Oxenford after Rod Tucker had turned down Herath's appeal, and Strauss on the third evening, then Pietersen, chipping carelessly to short midwicket early on the fourth day. When Bell fell on the sweep to Herath, despite claiming a bottom edge, England were 152 for four - and tottering. But Trott was playing his own game, mixing stoical defence with an unexpected reverse sweep or two, and Prior - batting at No. 6 ahead of the debutant Samit Patel - knuckled down. Sri Lanka went on the defensive; anything seemed possible. But four balls after Trott had reached his seventh Test hundred (it would become his first in defeat), and with England now only 107 short of their target, Prior's slog-sweep somehow lodged in Thirimanne's grasp at short leg. The innings unravelled with indecent haste: the last five tumbled for 12, and England were suddenly one result away from losing their No. 1 ranking. The upside-down flag felt about right.
Man of the Match: H. M. R. K. B. Herath.
Close of play: first day, Sri Lanka 289-8 (D. P. M. D. Jayawardene 168, Welagedara 10); second day, Sri Lanka 84-5 (Chandimal 17, Randiv 2); third day, England 111-2 (Trott 40, Pietersen 29).
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