England v Sri Lanka, 2006
England v Sri Lanka, 2006
Julian Guyer
15-Apr-2007
At Chester-le-Street, June 24. Sri Lanka won by eight wickets. Toss: England. One-day international
debut: A. G. R. Loudon.
Jayawardene became the third member of Sri Lanka's top three to make a hundred as the tourists
won the series at the earliest opportunity. Harmison and Plunkett were hopelessly wayward in
front of their home crowd. Bowling short and wide is usually inadvisable: against Jayasuriya and
Jayawardene, it was masochistic. With Mahmood also expensive again, it was hard not to sympathise
with England captain Strauss. Earlier, Bell's painstaking 77 from 114 balls said much about the
respective accuracy of the two attacks; Jayawardene scored at a run a ball. Even without
Muralitharan, who had left the tour to be with his sick son, Sri Lanka demonstrated a basic
professionalism that seemed beyond England, who also made fools of themselves by trying to
sledge Jayawardene after the umpires correctly refused a substitute for Pietersen on account of
his pre-existing injury. Jayawardene was untroubled, and his delighted grin as he observed debutant
Alex Loudon's doosra spoke volumes.
Man of the Match: D. P. M. D. Jayawardene.