Sri Lanka hang on for thrilling draw 16 June 2014, 19:46 The first test between England and Sri Lanka finished in a thrilling draw after the hosts grabbed six wickets in the final session of the fifth day at Lords on Monday. James Anderson bowled his heart out to finish with 4-25, but the match went down to the wire when the ninth wicket fell off the first delivery of the final over as Rangana Herath was given out caught behind off Stuart Broad. Replays showed the ball coming off his glove after the hand came off the bat handle, but Sri Lanka did not use one of the two reviews they had in hand. Last man, Nuwan Pradeep, saw out three deliveries, and was then trapped in front by Broad. The batsmen immediately reviewed the decision, and a huge inside edge was evident on Hot Spot, resulting in the call to be overturned. The final ball was edged, but fell short of second slip. Earlier, the match was sliding inexorably towards a draw on Monday, with the tourists still 226 runs short of an unlikely victory when tea was taken with the score on 164 for three. Captain Alastair Cook set Sri Lanka 390 to win in 90 overs after declaring Englands second innings on their overnight score of 267 for eight. After losing opener Dimuth Karunaratne for 16 before lunch, Kumar Sangakkara and Kaushal Silva put on 98 for the second wicket before the latter fell for 57, his second half-century of the match. Mahela Jayawardene was then removed for 18, with Sangakkara (59 not out) and Lahiru Thirimanne (0 not out) seeing Sri Lanka through to 164 for three at tea as they added just 65 runs in the middle session. Karunaratne fell after another breezy but ultimately short-lived innings when he failed to deal with Stuart Broad, edging into his body before Sam Robson claimed a sharp chance at short leg. The diminutive Silva held his nerve in the face of some well directed bouncers from Liam Plunkett to add to his first-innings 63, before gloving Chris Jordan through to keeper Matt Prior down the leg side while attempting a flick off his hips. Jayawardene also came in for a short-pitched examination from Plunkett, who has displayed good speed in his first test in seven years, but eventually went to Anderson as he feathered an edge through to Prior. Sangakkara, who has now passed 50 in his last six test innings, went 31 balls without scoring at one stage during the afternoon session. Barring a dramatic collapse, however, Sri Lanka are likely to head into Fridays second and final test at Leeds with a draw behind them.
Posted on: Mon, 16 Jun 2014 18:15:19 +0000
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