Test series
1st Test
- Bad light ended day 1 early, and rain ended day 2 early.
- On Day 3 of this Test, Muttiah Muralitharan surpassed Shane Warne as the leading wicket-taker in Test cricket. [11] At the end of the Kandy Test, Murali's wicket total stood at 713 to Warne's 708.
- On the same day that Murali set the Test wickets record, Sri Lanka's Sanath Jayasuriya became only the second batsman to score six fours off a six-ball over in Test cricket. After the day's proceedings, he announced his retirement from Test cricket, effective at the end of the Kandy Test. He will continue to play in ODIs. [12]
- In Sri Lanka's second innings, Kumar Sangakkara became the first batsman ever to score 150 in each of four consecutive Tests. [13]
The first day of the tour was a dramatic one, and it ended up being England's most impressive one of the whole tour. Sri Lanka, having won the toss and chose to bat first, were reduced to 42/5 due to some highly impressive swing bowling by Matthew Hoggard. A 100 run partnership between Kumar Sangakkara (who top-scored with 92) and Prasanna Jayawardene (the keeper) followed to allow Sri Lanka to post a vaguely respectable score, but they were bowled out for 188. England made a confident reply, reaching 49/1 by the close of play, with the loss of Alastair Cook in the first over as the only blemish.
England's innings proceeded well through the morning of day 2, with Ian Bell posting a fluent 83 before chipping a shot to midwicket. However, England then suffered a mini collapse, triggered by Muttiah Muralitharan, and slipped to 185/6 before rain curtailed the day's play. By this point, all eyes were on Muralitharan who was on the verge of overtaking Shane Warne's career haul of 708 test wickets.
England resumed positively on day 3, with Ryan Sidebottom providing useful assistance to the remaining recognised batsman, Paul Collingwood. However, it would be Collingwood who eventually provided Muralitharan with his record-breaking dismissal, being clean bowled by the spinner. The wicket prompted scenes of mass celebration, and an ad-hoc presentation along with the awarding of a special trophy by senior Sri Lankan officials took place at the lunch break. Michael Vaughan attended this ceremony.
Alongside all this, England were bowled out for 281, and took a useful 93 run lead into the second innings. However, the strength of this position quickly evaporated as Sri Lanka made a very good start to their second innings, with the openers (Sanath Jayasuriya and Michael Vandort) putting on 113. During this opening stand, Jayasuriya became only the second batsman to score six fours off a six-ball over in Test cricket (with James Anderson being the unfortunate bowler). After the day's proceedings, he announced his retirement from Test cricket.
Sri Lanka continued with a far more assertive batting display in their second innings. Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara dominated the first session, and Sangakkara became the first batsman ever to score 150 in each of four consecutive Tests. England's bowlers toiled throughout the day but struggled to contain the Sri Lankan batsman. Sri Lanka declared near to the close of play on 442/8, shortly after a swarm of bees had forced a halt in play with players and umpires all diving for cover!
England lost Alastair Cook in the first over again, and needed to bat the final day out (or score an unlikely 350 to win). The biggest threat was clearly Muralitharan, and so it was therefore of some disappointment that the 4 wickets to fall during the morning session on the final day were to the seam bowlers. At 125/5 at lunch, their quest seemed doomed, but Ian Bell and Matt Prior batted for 45 overs through the tea break and beyond to give England a chance of a draw.
However, Muralitharan had the last word when he dismissed both these well-set batsmen within an over of each other. Shortly afterwards, Ryan Sidebottom was dismissed to a controversial lbw decision (replays showed a big inside edge onto pad) which ended the stiffest of the resistance the lower order could offer. Matthew Hoggard was clean bowled by a Lasith Malinga yorker a few overs later, and Sri Lanka had won the match by 88 runs.
2nd Test
- Rain ends play at tea on day 5
Following the defeat in Kandy, England made two changes to their side. One was an enforced change, Matthew Hoggard having suffered an injury during the second innings. James Anderson was the other man to give way, with Stephen Harmison and Stuart Broad coming in. It was Broad's debut.
Sri Lanka's only change was enforced by Sanath Jayasuriya's retirement – Upul Tharanga replacing him at the top of the order. Jayasuriya was present at the Test match – but in the form of a TV commentator!
England won the toss, chose to bat and made an impressive start to their innings, with the opening stand being worth 133 in 39 overs. Michael Vaughan played some exquisite shots, bringing back memories of his performances against India and Australia in 2002 when he reached the top of the world rankings. It took a freakish dismissal to remove him, the ball getting caught in the trousers of the short leg fielder who then managed to grab it before it hit the ground. Vaughan had made 87, and was very disappointed to have to leave the crease when he had the potential to make a very large score.
Unusual dismissals were to be the theme of the day. Kevin Pietersen was given out to a catch that did not appear to have carried, and Alastair Cook fell victim to a questionable lbw decision. Ravi Bopara was clean bowled by Lasith Malinga next ball, and England closed the day on 258/5 – which was disappointing given the promising start.
England suffered further losses early on day 2, with Paul Collingwood shouldering arms to a straight delivery, and Stuart Broad failing as a batsman on his debut. Matt Prior batted very well for 79, and only fell when trying to accelerate the scoring with 9 wickets down. Before this, Ryan Sidebottom had provided him with good assistance with a partnership worth 74. England were all out for 351 – a somewhat below par total, but something to work with for the bowlers.
The bowlers made a very good start in the Sri Lankan reply, with Sidebottom removing Tharanga and then the prize wicket of Kumar Sangakkara very cheaply. The score was 22/2 at this point. Stuart Broad had shared the new ball with Sidebottom and bowled impressively, although he did receive two warnings for running on the danger area of the pitch.
However, this was as good as it got for England, as the Sri Lankan skipper, along with Michael Vandort proceeded to build a big partnership for the third wicket. They ended day 2 on 105/2, and carried on well into the afternoon session of day 3, and both picked up centuries in the process. Mahela Jayawardene also passed 7,000 test runs in his innings, the first Sri Lankan to achieve this milestone.
England toiled hard for just 2 wickets on day 3, those of Vandort and Chamara Silva, and the score was 379/4 at the end of the day. Stephen Harmison bowled very well following his comeback from injury, and deserved more success than the one wicket (of Silva) he got.
On day 4, England managed to make further inroads into Sri Lanka's innings, but the lead was ballooning out of control. A 98-run partnership for the ninth wicket effectively killed their chance of winning the test. When Sri Lanka finally declared on 548/9, they led by 197 runs and with one day's play remaining; the only possible results were a Sri Lankan win or a draw.
England's openers again posted a century partnership, the first time an English opening pair had done so for over 35 years. Michael Vaughan, Ian Bell and Alastair Cook all posted fifties to get up to parity with Sri Lanka and then take the lead. By tea, they had reached 250/3, but play was then brought to a halt due to rain, and the Test match drawn.
Mahela Jayawardene said after the match that he felt England's approach had been too negative, and they had eliminated their chances of winning by scoring too slowly in the first innings. He would go on to make similar comments at the end of the series.
3rd Test
- Days 1 and 2 both started late due to rain, rain also interrupted days 4 and 5
The final test of the series was a poignant and emotional affair – it was the first Test match to take place at the Galle stadium since it had been destroyed by the tsunami three years prior. The teams of ground staff had worked tirelessly on getting the stadium ready for the match, and heavy rainfall a few days before did not stop them achieving this memorable feat. Following the match, both the teams and all the officials were quick to congratulate them on their fantastic work that allowed the match to go ahead.
Sri Lanka made two change – swapping out the underperforming Jehan Mubarak for Tillakaratne Dilshan, a three-dimensional player who many believe should never have been dropped from the side. His good batting record, useful bowling ability and world class fielding is nearly always an asset to Sri Lanka when he is on the team. The other change was to swap the injured Dilhara Fernando for a debutant, Chanaka Welegedara.
England brought Matthew Hoggard back into the side, at the expense of Stuart Broad, despite an impressive debut in extremely difficult bowling conditions.
England won the toss and chose to field – a decision which looked correct as the new ball bowlers found plenty of movement of the pitch. However, they failed to take advantage of this situation, and the two wickets earned during the first session of play were due to lbw decisions that the batsmen could consider themselves unlucky to get out to. The biggest wicket of the day for England was that of Kumar Sangakkara, who pulled a ball out to deep square leg into the waiting hands of Monty Panesar. He had scored 46, but looked set for a much larger score. At the end of the day's play, Sri Lanka were 147/4, but with Mahela Jayawardene still at the crease.
Day 2 was a long and frustrating one for England, who were only able to take two wickets. Jayawardene and the recalled Dilshan batted for almost two sessions, before Dilshan was run out for 84 trying to give his captain the single that would earn him his century. England's only positive moment of the day occurring during the same over, where Ravi Bopara picked up his first test wicket when Prasanna Jayawardene edged the ball through to the keeper. Chaminda Vaas joined his captain at the crease and the two of them put on an unbroken 97, to take the score to 384/6.
Any hopes England had of winning the test and squaring the series were eliminated on day 3. Jayawardene went on to score 213 not out, Vaas had scored 90 before being dismissed, and Sri Lanka declared on 499/8. But things then turned from bad to catastrophic for England, as they lost 4 wickets during a 20-minute passage of play before lunch. Two wickets then fell quickly after lunch too to leave England on 33/6. Ryan Sidebottom and Paul Collingwood managed a partnership of 37 before the lower order were blown away. England were bowled out for the pitiful total of 81.
Chaminda Vaas was the stand out bowler for Sri Lanka, taking 4 wickets, and Chanaka Welegedara took his first two test wickets, including that of Paul Collingwood which prevented England getting past 100.
England received high levels of criticism for their first innings batting performance. Bob Willis, talking on Sky Sports' highlights show described it as "an absolute disgrace". Much debate was raised through a variety of media, calling factors into question such as the length of the tour (too short for three tests), the proximity to Christmas and the longer-term argument about the volume of cricket that teams have to play. Several of the fringe players came under scrutiny, too.
Having surrendered a first innings deficit of 416, England now had to bat for two days to save the game. They were able to do this with considerable assistance from the weather, which ensured that half the remaining available match time was wiped out. By the time the game was determined a draw late on day 5, England had reached 251/6 – a marked improvement on the first innings. Alastair Cook had scored 118, recording England's first and solitary century on the tour. Sri Lanka, in contrast, had scored 4. England suffered a scare when 3 wickets fell in four balls, including a first ball run out for Ravi Bopara, but they managed to avoid a defeat – which many felt they should not have. This was in contrast to the first match in Kandy, when they did deserve to escape with a draw, but did not.
Series result: a 1–0 win to Sri Lanka. Mahela Jayawardene raised points similar to what he said after the Colombo test, saying England's approach was too negative. Whilst his criticism was perhaps unjustified in the second test, it certainly was not here. England did appear to have given up during day 2, and this possibly acted as a catalyst for the poor batting performance that followed.
England left Sri Lanka with concerns about some of their best players. Monty Panesar and Kevin Pietersen in particular had not enjoyed a good series, and many of the other players enjoyed good starts but were unable to maintain their consistency levels.
Sri Lanka on the other hand were much happier. Their side had climbed to 3rd place in the ICC Test Match rankings, with England slipping from 2nd to 5th. Their two best batsmen were in imperious form, their newer players were improving by the game and their bowling attack was delivering as a unit. At the end of the series, the world's top ranked test batsman and bowler were both Sri Lankan: Sangakkara and Muralitharan, respectively.
