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England in crisis talks after loss to Sri Lanka SYDNEY, Feb 3 (Reuters) - England’s cricketers held a crisis meeting after crashing to an 11-run defeat by Sri Lanka in a limited-overs tri-series match on Wednesday. England, chasing Sri Lanka’s modest score of 181 for seven from 44 overs, suffered their third loss in four games when they were left stranded on 170 for nine when time ran out. Once again, it was England’s inability to play slow bowling that cost them victory with the finals, for which they have already qualified, just a week away. When the game ended with England still 12 runs short of their target, the players were ordered into the locker room at the Sydney Cricket Ground for a dressing down which lasted more than an hour. England captain Alec Stewart, although he did not play in the match, told a news conference the entire England camp was disappointed by the performance. "It’s a game we felt we should have won," Stewart said. "We should have knocked off 180 but we got bogged down against good quality spin. It’s very disappointing with the finals so close." Although the result had no bearing on the series standings as they and Australia have secured their places in the best-of-three final, England’s performance was disappointing. Even without the injured Muttiah Muralitharan, Sri Lanka’s most lethal spin bowler, England always struggled to score in a match reduced to 44 overs per side because of overnight rain. Nick Knight and Vince Wells gave them a perfect start with an opening stand of 53 before Thilan Samaraweera turned the match Sri Lanka’s way by picking up Wells for 26, stumped off a wide, and Graeme Hick, clean bowled for a duck, in the space of three balls. With the batsmen looking hesitant against the spinning ball on a pitch notorious for turning, Sri Lankan captain Arjuna Ranatunga tightened the screw and victory slipped away from England when they failed to score anything better than a single between the 13th and 26th overs. Nasser Hussain (9) and John Crawley (13) contributed one boundary between them despite occupying one end for an hour, while at the other end Knight made a painstakingly slow half-century in more than two hours before he went for 58 with the total on 118. Mark Ealham (0), Mark Alleyne (18) and Adam Hollioake (13), who stood in for Stewart as captain, also fell to spin while Ben Hollioake was run out for four as the Sri Lankans held on to record only their third win of the series. Ranatunga used spin for all but six overs and was rewarded when Samaraweera and Upul Chandana each took three wickets. "We’ve qualified for the finals but we want to go into the finals with a confident frame of mind," Stewart said. "That was a match we should not have lost and we’re all very disappointed. "We had a long discussion about what went wrong and now we’re looking forward to the next game." A Sri Lankan victory had looked unlikely when the reigning world champions could only manage 181 for seven despite openers Avishka Gunawardena and Romesh Kaluwitharana belting 71 for the opening wicket. After Kaluwitharana went for 54, Sri Lanka lost their next six wickets for just 35 runs before Aravinda de Silva rescued with a cavalier innings, bringing up his half century with a six off Wells from the last ball of the innings. Warne in doubt for England match Australia’s one-day captain, Shane Warne, is in doubt for Friday’s limited-overs match against England at the Sydney Cricket Ground because of a throat problem. The Australian leg spinner missed Thursday’s final training session because of inflamed tonsils and may be forced to miss the match. If Warne does pull out, Mark Waugh will take over as captain for the first time. Australia’s regular one-day captain Steve Waugh has already been ruled out of the rest of the limited-overs series with a hamstring strain. Australia and England have already qualified for next week’s best of three finals series. "I’ve never led any Australian side, so there’s some chance at this stage," Mark Waugh said. "If I happen to be captain tomorrow I’ll just enjoy the game and go from there." The Waugh brothers and Warne are the leading candidates to replace Mark Taylor as Australian test captain. Mark Waugh is considered the least likely of the three to get the nod although Taylor himself said on his retirement on Tuesday that he thought he would make a good captain. "It’s nice to be mentioned around the place, but it wouldn’t worry me either way if I wasn’t mentioned," Mark Waugh said. "Steve and Shane will be the two front runners, I think I’d be in the third line. If those two guys got injured I could be a chance," he added. The new captain will be named next week when the squad to tour the West Indies is chosen. Fast bowler Damien Fleming, meanwhile, is almost certain to miss the tour because of problems with his injured shoulder. Ananda, Nalanda in Kandy Three inter-school cricket matches will be played in Kandy today and tomorrow. The Anandians will be guest of the Antonians, while at Asgiriya, Trinity will play Wesley, while at Lake View Dharmaraja will play Nalanda. Vidyartha will be travelling down to Kurunegala to take on St. Anne’s. Antonians who escaped defeat against the Nalandians few days back, will be up against the strong Anandians, who are capable of dictating terms at Katugastota. Among the Antonians who are bound to do well today are skipper Suranga Pinnaduwa, Ravindra Wickremapala, Nafees Nizam, Kasun Jayarathne, Mohamed Pawas and Samson Burke. Antonian paceman Ricardo Gunaratne should be given a chance today, to prove his capabilities. For Ananda, with five wins this season, much will be expected from skipper Jithendra Perera, Thilina Kandambi, young Eshan Abeysinghe, the find of the season, Lahiru Chaturanga, Maduranga Mallawarachchi, Mohamed Ramzi and Lakshan Fernando. Trinitians who are riding high after their win in the last outing, are sure to take the upper hand in this game, if players like Kaushalya Weeraratne, R. Gamage, M. Azeez, I. Gamanpilla, S. Selvakumar, M. Samath, A. Imbuldeniya and D. Rodrigo pile up the runs. For Wesley, D. Madegedera, D. Jayakody, N. de Silva and H. Ziard, are expected to perform for them. Rajans, who are enjoying a good season, will depend much on skipper Pubudu Senavirathne, Asanka Marapana, Yasa Jayasundara, C. Kaduruwewa, C. Wickremanayake and N. Wickremarathne. Nalandians who did their best against the Antonians few days back, are expected to be at their best. Players like K. Gangodawila, R. Prasanna, H. de Mel, D. Jayasundara and P. Heddigala should excel. Vidyartha who are travelling down to Kurunegala to meet the St. Anne’s side. They are bound to give the Vidyartha lads a firm challenge. Nalin a fine all-round performance A fine allround performance by Nalin Piyaratne helped Sebastianites to beat Weera SC, Horana on the first innings in their Division II cricket encounter played at Katubedda Campus grounds last week-end. Nalin Piyaratne, the right arm medium paceman took a match bag of 15 for 89 and scored 69 for Sebastianites.- (RP) SCORES WEERA SC first innings 209 all out. (K. Sujeewa 63, L. Prasad 29, B. Padmakumara 27, Nalin Piyaratne 8 for 43) and 90 for 8 at close (Nalin Piyaratne 7 for 46). An over-view of the
Trinity-Wesley cricket encounters The Trinity-Wesley cricket encounter is the fourth oldest inter-school fixture in this Country, after the Royal-Thomian (1879); Trinity-Royal (1893); Trinity-St. Thomas’ (1898). The first match was played in 1903. Trinity was captained by C. B. Aluvihare, Wesley, by S. P. Foenander. Wesley won in resounding manner which led to the abandoning of the fixture for four years. Revived in 1908, Wesley again won handsomely for the next year’s fixture to be abandoned. From 1910 this has been a regular fixture except for sporadic breaks in 1917, ’19 and ’43. Although Wesley held the whip hand in the early encounters, Trinty came into the winning streak as early as 1911 under J. Masilamani and held the ascendance except in 1912, 1913, 1935, ’41, ’52, ’54, ’56, ’60, ’62, ’64, ’68 and ’70. Since 1972 the wins and losses have been more or less equally shared and the remarkable feature of this series is that upto 1932 a decision was reached in every encounter. The stalwarts produced by both Schools is legion and due to constraints of space, mention will only be made of Wesley’s M. K. Albert, the Gunasekeras, the mercurial Satahasivam, arguably the finest batsman produced by our Country, Stanley Jayasekera, Bertram Henderling, Edmund Dissnayake, M. N. Samsudeen, the Claessen brothers, Patrick Schokman who had his beginnings at Trinity, Abu Fuard, Lou Adhihetty, S. Nagendra, Jegganathan, Gunatileke and Wilhelm Van Dort. Trinity had H. C. Inman, M. B. Ekanayake, A. W. Dambawinne, C. E. Simithaarachchi, M. P. Kalora, Alfred Aluvihare, the prince of wicket-keepers, A. H. R. Joseph, Percy Maralande and hisson, Nimal, V. C. ‘Pug’ Schokman, Harry Delwitha, H. M. Schakman, Willie Aiyadurai, S. A. Odayar, Philip and brother Eddie Buultjens, C. Dharmalingam of the two hat tricks, Blackham Wijewardena, Rex Breckenridge, O. L. Izzadeen and his two brothers O. L. Z. Abdeen and O. L. M. Lebbe, T. B. Marambe, R. P. de Alwis, Vernon Ratwatte, the classic left-hander, H. EW. ‘Pat’ Solomons, T. B. Werapitiya, Dala Wadsworth, Eustace Rulach, M T. M. Zaruk, Harindra Dunuwille, Himendra Ranaweera, Malsiri Krukulasoorirya, Senanka de Chikera, Jayantissa Ratwatte and in recent years, Dinesh Selvarajah, Ravi Ratnayake, Mevan Balalle Suren Jayasinghe, Dudeepa Ratwatte, Kumar Sangakkara and Thushara Weerasooriya. Wesley’s strongest team would have been in 1956, coached by Edmund Dissanayake and captained by Lou Adhihetty when they were un-official champions. Trinity held sway a decade earlier, in ’46 with C. N. ‘Pittu’ Schokman captaining a superb blend of artistes of the willow and the red cherry. The others in the team were Asoka Yatawara (V. C.), Asoka Imbuldeniya, S. B. Pilapitiya and Frank Sirimanne of the record first wicket stands, Mervyn Wanduragala, E. D. ‘Blakes’ Senaratne, Jim Bandaranayake, Harvey Jones, Lala Wadsworth and Michael Schokman. Scorers of centuries in the
series Trinity:- Bowling (5 wkts and over) Trinity:- Fathers & Sons who
captained the series 1915 A. M. Fuard Trinity:- Wesley:- Trinity:- Subodha guides Annites to victory St. Anne's College, Kurunegala scored an impressive innings and 11-run victory over Richmond College, Galle in their inter-school cricket encounter concluded at Galle over the weekend. Annites after their resounding victory over St. Sebastians', Moratuwa a fortnight ago, came up with yet another good performance to defeat Richmond by an innings this time, at their home grounds. Annites off-spinner Subodha Jayawardena was instrumental for this victory by claiming a match bag of 8 for 31, including 4 for 8 in the second innings. Omesh Wijesiriwardene took 5 for 35 for the losers in this low scoring game. Scores: RICHMOND 74 all out in 47.5 overs. (Avantha Redeegammanagedera 17, Tharindu Wickramasuriya 19, Sherantha Mendis 2/21, Subodha Jayawardena 4/23, G. Tissera 2/10, Sudath Rohana 2/8) and 88 all out in 53.2 overs. (Dilan Babar 18, Oshad Sumathipala 23, Sherantha Mendis 4/32, Subodha Jayawardena 4/8, Sudath Rohana 2/15) ST. ANNE'S 173 all out in 57.1 overs. (C. Tissera 30, Sherantha Mendis 27, R. Perera 30 n.o., C. Abeyratne 13, A. Isurendra 35, O. Wijesiriwardena 5/35, O. Sumathipala 2/48). |
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