Related Links : England Vs Sri Lanka : Scorecard
England were made to work hard by Muttiah Muralitharan as they strolled to a six-wicket win on the fourth day of the Edgbaston Test Match. Requiring just 78 to win, England lost all its four wickets to Muralitharan and took over 27 overs to achieve this small target. Alastair Cook with his 34 not out defied any further damage and along with his skipper Andrew Flintoff saw England through to give a 1-0 lead in the 3-Test Match Series.
Resuming at the overnight score of 194 for 5, Sri Lanka looked to stretch the lead further with Vandort and Maharoof batting stubbornly. Flintoff was the bowler who gave the breakthrough in the 15th over of the day as Maharoof did not have any answers to his nasty short pitch delivery. It was the 2nd new ball that did the trick for England this time around. Liam Plunkett who did not bowl on the 3rd day’s play due to a bad shoulder was fit to bowl today and he struck twice in his 13th over removing Vaas and Kulasekara in consecutive balls. Both Vaas and Kulasekara were caught by Paul Collingwood, who continued to have a great time with his catching in this test match. Flintoff and Plunkett then took a wicket each to end the Sri Lankan innings at 231. Vandort was the last man to fall, getting out for 105 as he was looking to play a forcing shot on the backfoot to Plunkett’s away going delivery.
England had a small target to get and their innings started 25 minutes before the lunch break. Muralitharan who was brought into the attack in just the 4th over, got the breakthrough in his 1st over itself trapping Trescothick infront of the stumps with his doosra. Strauss and Cook then batted well and Murali was lucky in his 6th over to get the wicket of Strauss, who was given out caught at slip when the batsman had failed to make any connection with the ball in his attempted sweep shot by Aleem Dar. Murali then bowled two more doosras to get the wickets of Pietersen and Collingwood but they were just enough to delay the inevitable England win. Pietersen may have just made 13 in this innings but he had made a murderous 142 out of the 295 first innings runs that England made and for that he rightly got the Man of the Match award. His innings had got a significant lead for England and that was crucial in the end as Sri Lanka despite making 231 in their 2nd essay ended up giving a small target of 78. As far as Muralitharan in concerned, he had taken his 15th ten wicket haul! Trent Bridge, Nottingham will host the 3rd and final Test Match and that match starts on next Thursday.