England Blast Past Sri Lanka - By: paulterry1975

Trentbridge was the setting for the fourth ODI match between Sri-Lanka and England in the 5 match series. England won the early afternoon toss and chose to put the Sri Lankans into bat first. Right away the spearhead of the England fast bowling attack, Jimmy Anderson had the Sri-Lankans in trouble, removing both Dilshan and Chandemal without them troubling the scorers. More wickets followed soon after including the in-form Jayawardene, leaving the Sri Lankans at the very fragile score of 20-4, and in danger of making the game more of a 20 over game than a 50 over one. You could even suggest that there may be some problems with their cricket equipment, such was the severity of the poor display from the top order.

Sangakkara in partnership with Randiv, and then Matthews, managed to rebuild the Sri Lankan innings and progressed the score onto 155 before the fall of Matthews prompted another collapse from the tourists. Two wickets fell to Stuart Broad, who must have been relieved to see some numbers in the wickets column after his poor run of form lately. Other notable contributions came from Dernbach and Bresnan as the Sri Lankans were bowled out for 170 in less than 44 overs. The pick of the batsmen was Sangakkara who kept the score line respectable during the chaos around him with a knock of 75. Despite the conditions being in favour of the bowlers, the total was way below par, and England must have fancied their chances of recording a win after the break.

There has been much debate about Alistair Cook's place in the brand new England ODI set up in recent weeks, both being a player along with a captain. Lots of people feel his scoring rates are not suitable for the shorter format of the game. This is despite him scoring an excellent 119 in the middle of wickets tumbling all-around him in England's heavy defeat from the Sri Lankans at Lords on the weekend. This surely was the game where he put all those doubts to bed well and truly. In favourable bowling conditions together with Kieswetter he proceeded to dismantle the Sri Lankan bowling attack having a superb innings of 95 not out of just 75 deliveries. The one thing that delayed England's march to victory was the slight interruption through the rain, but this brief shower couldn't save the Sri-Lankans, as England reached their victory total with 145 balls remaining devoid of the loss in a wicket.

Cook was justifiably named the man of the match for his excellent batting display, and England's victory signifies that the series is perfectly setup at 2-2, entering the last match to get played at Old Trafford, Manchester this Saturday.

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