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Great reports Matt .I would Green rep you for them but I can't be ar$ed..;) :p
 
Allthe players are lying on the floor because of a swarm of fly's or bee's going across the pitch! :hilarious:
 
If they don't declare soon then they are stupid, give Murali an hour to get a wicket or two at the end of the day and its pretty much game over! Of course I don't want that!
 
Sri Lanka have declared we need 346 to win.

England are 4-1 and have sent in a night watchman, we need bad light to stop play quickly!
 
9-1 after 5 overs. Not sure how long is left today, so I hope we can hang on until the end of the day without conceding another wicket.
 
That was close of play score. 341 needed tomorrow, or more realistically bat out 90 overs.

We await the latest from YB.........
 
Things aren't looking too promising.

Today started with England needing wickets. I've said all along that the key to this series is getting Sangakarra and Jayawardene early, and England needed to remove at least one of them in the first hour. Hoggy opened up but having seen Sangakarra edge his first ball past Collingwood, didn't last long and was to struggle with injury for the rest of the day. Sideshow and Jimmy Harmison, sorry Jimmy Anderson bowled with a lot of heart but luck wasn't going England's way with edges flying through gaps for 4 rather than to hand and with it the momentum slipped Sri Lanka's way.

Eventually the breakthrough came just before lunch, when a wincing Hoggy returned and first ball strangled the Lankan skipper down the leg-side to a very smart leg-side catch to Prior, who was standing up. Even now, we got the impression it was too little too late. After lunch the otherwise imperious Sangakarra got nervous as he closed in on yet another ton, edging Sideshow to Bell for the simplest of slip catches that Bell inexplicably spilled. Sangakarra uncharacteristically played and missed a couple before driving Jimmy harmison for 4 whereby he continued to look untroubled.

By now the game was drifting. The Lankans lacked a little urgency and we were waiting for the inevitable declaration. Instead wildlife took centre-stage when first a dog strayed onto the pitch again, then some monkeys turned up on the boundary before finally a swarm of flies swept past forcing all the players and officials to lie down on the floor, in one of the most surreal sights I've ever seen at a cricket game.


Sangakarra kept going and got another 150. This followed on from consecutive double hundreds v the Banglas and a wonderful 150 against the convicts for his 4th consecutive match in which he'd passed 150. By now England were in one-day mode. Monty picked up a generous lbw decision against Silva and then a catch in the deep miraculously taken by Graeme Swann. I say miraculous not because it was a good catch - it was pretty straight forward that even Bell might have held onto it, but because Swann had put in the worse fielding display I have ever seen from a professional cricketer, repeatedly fumbling the ball with some abysmal ground fielding. By my count he fumbled the ball 5 times out of 7. When are England going to enter the professional era and take a specialist fielder as part of the tour party?

Collingwood was bowling tightly and picked a couple of wickets, and Monty bowled Malinga attempting a slog and the Lankans eventually declared, probably an hour too late.

As it turned out it made little difference as despite clipping the first ball of the innings for 4, the key wicket of Cook was claimed by a left-armer seamer yet again when Vaas had he snapped up in the slips in the first over. Jimmy Anderson was a surprise no.3, although his promotion to nightwatchman probably was because Hoggy wasn't allowed to bat because he'd been off the field.
In any case there was a strong argument for promoting the left-hander who had played Murali as well as anyone in the first innings But barring rain or a minor miracle England look like heading to Kandy 1-0 down and with major doubts over their best batsman and bowler.
 
He was a great central defender for Southend United but he's an awful batsman and wicketkeeper. Hopefully the coach will stop picking one of his favourites from Sussex and play a proper wicketkeeper instead.

Agree with you about Spinner, but Prior has kept very well in this test. He's even stood up to all the quicks, including taking a leg-side catch standing up to Hoggy.

His keeping today and in the first innings was better than the likes of Gilchrist, Akmal, Boucher, Dhoni etc

He is short of runs with the bat, but unlike Chris Read has the technique. The jury is still out on whether he has the temperament, but he deserves an extended run in the side to find out.
 
I've stated on here before, and I know the stats show otherwise, but for me he is not a Test batsman.

He's still work in progress, but I will be surprised if he doesn't go on and have a long and relatively successful test career. He's only 22(?) and is one of the few half decent openers in test cricket.
 
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