Related Links : England Vs Sri Lanka : Scorecard
The Sri Lankan Magician Muttiah Muralitharan spun his side to a 134-run win over England in the 3rd Test Match at Trent Bridge. Muralitharan won the match single handedly by taking 8 wickets in the 2nd innings as England collapsed from 84 for no loss to 190 all out! It was Muralitharan’s doosras that bamboozled the English batsmen as they succumbed to the vultures breathing around their neck at short leg and silly point. England were set a challenging target of 325 with plenty of time left and they fell apart to Muralitharan’s 30 overs spell. The Spin King had also taken 3 wickets in England’s first innings. It was Murali’s 16th ten wicket haul in a career of 106 Tests! Murali ended what could be his last Test Match in England with 635 Tests wickets. Muttiah Muralitharan ended up taking as many as 24 English wickets to fall in this 3-Tests Series. He was rightly awarded the Man of the Match award but he was forced to share the Man of the Series award with the big hitting Kevin Pietersen. Another performer in this match has been the left arm spinner Monty Panesar who took is first 5-wicket haul.
Day 1 : England lose two wickets after bundling out Lanka for 231
Sri Lanka won the toss and they chose to bat first at Trent Bridge, Nottingham and their start was bad as usual. England’s Debutant pacer Jon Lewis got his first test wicket in just the 3rd ball of his career as he cleaned up the left hander Michael Vandort with a sharp inswinger. Sri Lanka’s innings was then repaired by Tharanga and Sangakkara who put on 82 runs. England got into the wicket taking act soon with Fllintoff taking three quick wickets. Sri Lanka could never recover from the middle order collapse and they were bowled out in just over 66 overs! Sri Lanka could atleast get to 231 and it was due to the fighting partnerships for the 9th and the 10th wicket. Chaminda Vaas top scored with an unbeaten 38. For England, Jon Lewis and Andrew Flintoff picked up three wickets each. England in reply lost its two openers Strauss and Trescothick. Strauss was bowled by Vaas’ inswinger and Trescothick was a victim of a run out and England finished Day 1 at 53/2.
Day 2 : Sri Lanka come back into the game in a dramatic fashion
Sri Lanka bowled out the homeside for 229 to dramatically clinch the first innings lead. England lost their way after Kevin Pietersen’s dangerous innings of 41 came to and end courtesy of Muttiah Muralitharan. Only Paul Collingwood could stick to the wicket for a long time and he was the 8th wicket to go down after scoring a patient 48. The damage was done by all the four bowlers used by Sri Lanka and Murali was the most successful taking three wickets. Sri Lanka in their 2nd innings lost just the wicket of Michael Vandort to close the 2nd day’s play with a lead of 47 with 9 more wickets in hand.
Day 3 : England in trouble as Sri Lanka head towards setting a challenging target
Sri Lanka ended Day 3 at 286 for 7 to take their lead to 288. The Sri Lankan 2nd innings was well held by Upul Tharanga and Kumar Sangakkara and the latter made a valuable 66. Jayawardene, Dilshan and Kapugedera all contributed with useful scores as the visitors piled up the pressure on England to chase a 300 plus target in the fourth innings.
Sri Lanka won this Test Match thanks to the one man show of Muttiah Muralitharan and they have forced England to draw the 3-Tests Series 1-1. It’s the end of a well fought Test Series in which Sri Lanka performed remarkably well despite its continuous top order batting failures.