England in Sri Lanka

Utd heap

Models for Coin.
Joined
Aug 15, 2006
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Sri Lanka 269-8 with Jayawardene batting beautifully.

However, he is being helped by Monty's incompetence in the field - embarrassing to watch as he has shelled two dollies in the last ten minutes.

I appreciate he isn't blessed with natural athleticism, but catch the fecking ball when you're just stood there :mad:

300 looks a decent score, particularly if we bat like we did in Pakistan.
 
300 is not more than a decent score in sub-continental tracks, but I think England will go into bat eying a mountain. Mentally they're up against 500.
 
Mahela is a genius, what a treat to watch when he's in full form. Also the best captain in the world right now.
 
Erm...It happened again.

Lucky our bolwers turn up every now and then.
 
45 minutes, I reckon. Only 15 overs left, but with Spinners bowling in tandem they should be finished quickly.
 
England need to get rid of Sameeraweera, he's an annoying fecker who is very hard to get out once he gets settled.
 
We just cannot get our batsmen acclimatised to batting in the Indian sub continent. If Sri Lanka post 250 plus it will be very hard to win.

Our batsmen have been used to dominating attacks at home. That mentality doesn't work where you have to accumulate your runs.
 
This test match has gone for us IMO.

Be suprised if we were chasing less than 280, and we wouldn't get near that.

Lets just become a good home team :D
 
Well, our batsmen only have to dig in a give a couple of good performances and we'll storm it.
 
England are still in the game, IMO.

Anderson's become tremendous.
 
Pitch is starting to turn so that's England top order dead and buried
 
Poor, Poor batting and then some shoddy captaincy(field placings) to let SL off the hook completely.

275 run chase was going to be just about impossible, but with the lead now at 336, this is nailed on to be a big SL win.
 
Game was already over.

But now we can't even entertain the idea of winning :(
 
Neutral said:
Poor, Poor batting and then some shoddy captaincy(field placings) to let SL off the hook completely.

275 run chase was going to be just about impossible, but with the lead now at 336, this is nailed on to be a big SL win.
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I have to say this situation is unfortunate, as the England Bowlers are getting stick, when they have been carrying the team (both in respect of bowling AND batting) all winter.
 
Nah I think most will realize, the bowlers aren't at fault. 1st innings, Monty deciding he would become a pantomime villain pushed SL to a formidable score, even then, they scored 318, not 518.

Only for the English batsmen to come out and get out to idiotic shots - the batting has been very irresponsible, they learned nothing from the Pakistan series.
 
Unless KP scores a hundred in the arrogance he can, we've not got a hope here.
 
Neutral said:
Nah I think most will realize, the bowlers aren't at fault. 1st innings, Monty deciding he would become a pantomime villain pushed SL to a formidable score, even then, they scored 318, not 518.

Only for the English batsmen to come out and get out to idiotic shots - the batting has been very irresponsible, they learned nothing from the Pakistan series.
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It is a massive mental block. England cannot bat in the sub-continent.
 
Andy Flower is/was regarded as one of the best players of spin - can;t believe he hasn't been able to impart some of his knowledge to these players.

So many LBW decisions, with players playing right back or deciding sweeping was the only way to play spin.
 
People keep on harking about Gooch and Flower being great spin players but today we have DRS and umpires more willing to give LBW decisions. The game has changed.

Our batsmen need to think not blindly go out full of confidence chest thumping trying to dominate wily bowlers on their home turf. Until we play to the conditions and change our batsmen mentality we will continue to fail in the sub continent.
 
Geoffrey always says add two wickets to the total to check if it is any good. I wish we could have done that to the Sri Lankan second innings when they were 8 down...
 
Sri Lanka still definite favourites, but we're in with a shout now.

One of these two need a hundred.
 
England fighting hard here...what a stupid dismissal for KP. 340 is still a long way, away. But SL will be starting to get slightly nervous.
 
Sri Lanka have the worst balling attack in international cricket. Some of them would find it difficult finding a spot in club cricket.
 
The players need to forget the scoreboard. Just relax and bat. This can be done.
 
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