Anderson Inspires England To Victory - By: paulterry1975

The first Day International in the summer between England and Sri Lanka, played on the Oval, was predictably ( in this summer so far, anyway ) a rain affected game. Heavy downpours in London meant that the 50 over game was reduced to 32 overs involving the two sides. England ended up being humbled by Sri Lanka while in the ICC World Cup a few months ago, so they quite definitely had a score to pay back. The brand new captain in the 1 day side for England was Alistair Cook, replacing Andrew Strauss, while Dilshan took on the helm with the Sri Lankans.

Dilshan produced nice beginning to his reign by winning the toss and putting England into bat first This appeared to be an outstanding decision since the England captain, Cook was removed in early stages. He was quickly followed by Trott as England reached 53-2 inside the eighth over. This brought Pietersen to the crease and together with Kieswetter, England made sharp progress to move past 100 in 16 overs. England must hope that Kieswetter’s excellent knock of 61 may be the catalyst to the young Somerset wicket keeper to kick on, as the job of Wicket Keeper continues to be a spot of weakness within the England team for quite a while now.

The middle to late order, especially Morgan and Bresnan, added more useful runs to push England to the formidable score of 229. Morgan looking every aspect the total 1 day batsman, by incorporating exquisite stroke play. As seems the situation most of the time nowadays, Malinga was the pick from the Sri Lankan bowlers, with his fantastic execution of the Yorker delivery really has batsmen around the globe troubled. He finished with figures of 3-40 in 7 overs, with all the other notable bowling contributions originating from Lakmal with figures of 2-52 within his seven over spell.

Jimmy Anderson returned for the England attack having a point to prove after being left out of the team after they were beaten by Sri Lanka in the World Cup Quarter Final in Colombo. It didn't take him long in making his point in no uncertain terms, taking out the top quality triumvirate of Dilshan, Jayawardene and Sangakkara with the Sri Lankans having under 20 runs posted on the scoreboard. Not only did Anderson excel with the ball , he also took a stunning catch to remove Mathews from the bowling of Dernbach.

From this point on the match, as a contest, was as good as over, and only a slight wagging of the Sri Lankan tail ( Malinga 26, Randiv 24 ) prevented total humiliation for the visitors. Eventually they were all out for 121, leaving England convincing winners by 110 runs, with Swann and Dernbach backing up Anderson taking 2 and 3 wickets respectively.

Anderson picked up the Man on the Match award afterwards, and sent out a clear message that he is very much still a force in one day cricket. The win meant that Alistair Cooks reign as the England ODI captain got off to the perfect start, and put England 1 up in the best of 5 series. The teams will now move on to Leeds on Friday for the second game, no doubt hoping for better weather and a full day of cricket this time.

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