Rain delays Murali's moment of glory
Cruelly, it . But it will take more than a heavy shower to dampen his enthusiasm, or to delay for too long in moving clear of Shane Warne as Test cricket's leading wicket-taker .
Indeed, watching Ryan Sidebottom groping around at the crease before the heavens opened on day two in Kandy, it will surely be only a matter if time before the off-spinner rewrites cricket history.
It has been a one-man show for the Sri Lankans in the field - but what a show. Muralitharan gives two options in that he takes wickets, of course, but he is also virtually impossible to score off. Even with only one man - a mid-off - posted to save the single in the off-side, he barely conceded a run. Bear in mind, too, that the pitch has not really started to help him yet!
And that is why it is crucial that England eke out every run in this innings. Trouble is their tail is so long that it might very well be six out: all out. For that reason, should be really angry with the manner in which he got out - lamely clipping a catch to mid-wicket for a duck.
Ian Bell batted with great fluency, his driving through the off-side particularly productive, but he, too, will be cross to have given it away when a century beckoned. Having done all the hard work, he also chipped a catch into the leg-side for 83. That is the difference between good Test players, and great ones: the great ones do not get themselves out once they are set.
Michael Vaughan was unfortunate to be adjudged caught at silly-point to give Murali his first wicket of the match but, on the other hand, Kevin Pietersen might have been immediately given out lbw to Muralitharan’s quicker one – such is the luck of the draw.
But nothing can alter the view that England will be massively disappointed to find themselves in this situation after If a revitalised Sri Lanka set a target of 250, or so, the runs will take some getting.
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I'm out here with the many England fans cheering the boys on and Aggers is spot on - Prior's in particular was a huge wicket throwaway as we have a potentially very poor tail. Sidebottom trying to play both bowlers did not inspire confidence for the morning!
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why have we not picked more left hand batters? Murali doesnt have a good record bowling at them. Mustard must be close 2 playing soon if Prior keeps failing
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Mustard? Surely after the last series he should have been forgotten about... id rather have Jones or even the dire Read in than him. Wheres Foster/Ambrose?
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Aggers that is pretty harsh on Bell.
He will be annoyed with himself , yes, but he has proved that he is a learner. His Test career is still in its infancy by comaprison to some. That's why one day he may be a great Test player raher than a good one.
Without his contribution today, like Sangakkara's for SL, we would have been in dire straights. You mention /cricitcise our top scorer, but not the ones who did not contribute (eg Cook) - odd and typically English.
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KP obviously nicked his first ball from Murali (so it was correctly adjudged not out). His dismissal on the other hand was dubious: a mile down the pitch and probably turning past leg - There was definitely significant doubt). SL, and Murali in particular, have had the rub of the umpiring green in this match (the failure to give sangekarra lbw to Panesar could also be crucial in the final reckoning) .
By the way, It's turning alot (for Panesar as well) so you can't say there's no help for Murali. In less favourable conditions (e.g. in Australia and the last England tour) he looks much less deadly, if still difficult
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we had the game there to be won today..but as usual we have made it hard for ourselves.
i think we need at least a 50 run lead to have a chance, as i doubt sri lanka will succumb so easily again
our long tail should prompt the selectors to seriously think about bring ing in stuart broad- who is close to becoming an all rounder
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Jonathan i like your balanced reporting no doubt Vaughans wicket is amidst controversy but you balnce it well with possibility of Kevin petersen.
We are always ready to"go to town" when there is a dubious decision by the Umpire but we remain silent when he overlooks a sure time when he should have raised his finger.
As for Murali he no doubt is the Greatest Bowler ever in the game and lets all get up and give him a loud cheer when he achieves his target.
I am happy to note you will be there at the historic moment when Murali achieves his world record.
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I tink england have made the wrong choice by playing matt prior i think the test against the west indies where he made a century was up against a woefull pace attack since then he has made low scores granted he has been injured but in my view mustard even though he did not make the best of scores in the one dayers in sri lanka he still looked good and not only that as john agnew says above murali"S hard to score off but this young lad mustard he will attack murali and unsettle the bowler they do say that you have to sit in for long spells in sri lanka batting wise. But i think england need a spark from somewhere. England need at least 50 runs to play with tommrow or i think all the hard work put in by the bowlers will be in vein!
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I tink england have made the wrong choice by playing matt prior i think the test against the west indies where he made a century was up against a woefull pace attack since then he has made low scores granted he has been injured but in my view mustard even though he did not make the best of scores in the one dayers in sri lanka he still looked good and not only that as john agnew says above murali"S hard to score off but this young lad mustard he will attack murali and unsettle the bowler they do say that you have to sit in for long spells in sri lanka batting wise. But i think england need a spark from somewhere. England need at least 50 runs to play with tommrow or i think all the hard work put in by the bowlers will be in vein!
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I thought England dropped Jones because of his batting, his glovework wasn't too much of a problem. They cannot afford a wicket-keeper who keeps failing with the bat. And that was ostensibly the reason Read got short shrift from Fletcher after not coming up with the runs. So Prior's days must be severely numbered. Are we so deviod of wicket-keeping talent in CC that we can't pick someone who can contribute behind and in front of the stumps? I don't think so, so unless Prior sorts himself out this series he shouldn't be there when England visit New Zealand. Yes, it's harsh but top level sport is harsh. England cannot afford passengers. Not to mention that his glovework hasn't exactly sparkled either. The clock's ticking.....
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Murali is a magician with a cricket ball and deserves to be in the record-breaking position he is in . I remember being priviledged to be at the Oval in August 1998 when he took that wonderful 9 for 65 ( the other wicket was a run out!). I think that it was then that people really began to recognise Murali for the world-class bowler that he is. Remember, too, that in the first innings of the same match he had already taken 7 for 155.
He may not have the charisma and presence of a Shane Warne, but he has the steeliness, determination and skill to be ranked alongside Shane as among the top bowlers of all time
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England are set in positions 1 to 5:
Cook
Vaughan
Bell
Pietersen
Collingwood
The trouble is between 6-11
6. We need Freddie or at least a reliable genuine medium pacer who can some virtue or a spinner that is accurate, my examples here are Steve Waugh and Sanath Jayasuriya - they both average 40+ with the bat yet the have taken 90+ test wickets each.
7. Prior seems to have been an international flash in the pan. The keeper needs to have an additional quirk to solid glovework i.e. a prolific batsman in the Sangakkara/Gilchrist/A.Flower mode or a leader in the Russell/Healy.
Read is too meek, at the very least we need someone different with either hard nosed or panache e.g Boucher/Dhoni ..... give Mustard a go - ideally we need a lefty, also consider Davies of Worcs
8-11 on the subcontinent if you don't have a containing Jayasuriya type spinner in the top 6/7 then you need another frontline spinner. Vaughan and Pietersen look good at times when bowling but given their importance in the team the never bowl meaningfully.
On the basis of batting alone we have to drop Anderson and pick Stuart Broad - he is the closest thing to having a # 8 in England.
My XI
Cook
Vaughan
Bell
Pietersen
Collingwood
Bopara
Mustard
Swann
Broad
Hoggard
Panesar
2 frontline seamers
2 medium pacers
2 spinners
Ryan Sidebottom does not deserve to be dropped but horses for courses I suggest.
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What's this nonsense?
"Muralitharan gives his captain two options in that he takes wickets, of course, but he is also virtually impossible to score off."
He's just come back from Australia where he took four wickets at a cost of one hundred runs apiece. Doesn't look the Aussies have too much trouble with him.
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Murali?
Whatever happened to Englands pre-match plans of controlled aggression?
If the intention is to block, then you are doing what Murali wants you to do.
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murali and warne cheat exactly the same amount, his action has been proven to be legal whereas both of them put undue pressure on the umpire and never get punished for it while lesser players are fined. monty is following in their footsteps as well.
one major example is the last day of the ashes in 2005 when trescothick was out lbw when there was a huge amount of doubt-it was dismissal by accumulation of appeals...
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England desparately need two quality left handers in the top order.There's too much of the sameness right hander after right hander,and this makes things much easier for the opposition attack.Trouble is,where do we find the batsmen we need? Come back Graham Thorpe and Marcus Trescothick,all is forgiven!
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thing is we need to accept we are one of a number of teams vying for 2nd place in the world and we are miles from australia. its a sad fact that injurys and breakdowns to the first choice team has caused this but we have to be realistic and realise we are starting again. once you get past pietersen we are fragile.large tail, its plainly obvious the shape of the team is wrong with too many no.11s any selectors seen stuart broad bat? its a lot to expect bopara to make a big score on debut. maybe it might have been an idea to strengthen the tail.unless colly stops the wobbles we will make about 15 more runs! can you imagine australia being 182 - 6? never they would have had the sri lankans by the throat now.
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England desparately need two quality left handers in the top order.There's too much of the sameness right hander after right hander,and this makes things much easier for the opposition attack.Trouble is,where do we find the batsmen we need? Come back Graham Thorpe and Marcus Trescothick,all is forgiven!
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Why does everyone continue to overlook Tim Ambrose? He scored a bucket load of runs over the first half of the summer, before Warwickshire's season fell apart. How can Mustard and Foster be spoken about above him?
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murali is going to kick a**, i want to c shane warnes face when murali break his record, funny thing is, everytime murali impresses the world, some one will come out and call him a chucker, pure jelousy anyway so GO MURALI!!!!
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Prior has too much of the attitude of Rodney Marsh - and too little of his ability. He has never looked the part.
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Surely Bell deserves more praise? Why pick on him for getting out when none of the other batsmen (unless Collingwood does tomorrow) even reached 40? Bell alone scored over double that. Let's be thankful for that, rather than moan about him getting out - seems he's still criticised no matter what he does. Cook got a duck and no-one's saying anything - because fair enough it is only one innings; he's a great player and I don't think he should be judged on it. But my point is that if Bell did the same, I can sense the comments on here going crazy about it. Without Bell's innings today, we'd have been screwed.
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At some point this morning, in drawing comparisons with baseball in the context of long-hitting, one of the commentators said he had seen a US baseball star, a Cuban called Sammy Sousa, demonstrating spectacular long-hitting with a baseball bat at a cricket ground in England. Just to correct the story, Sammy is from Dominican Republic, not Cuba. I wish I could have seen it.
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I do not think it is particularly fair to keep questioning Matt Prior's position in this side after only eight Test matches. The decision was made by Peter Moores to go with Prior for the West Indies series, he repayed the selection committee's faith by averaging 64.80 for the series. Admittedly his form with both bat and gloves were below par in the Indian series but we cannot keep chopping and changing our keeper if he performs below the expected level for a couple of Tests.
Prior would not have been my personal selection back in May, but Moores identified him as the next England wicket-keeper, so let us at least give him time to bed into the role.
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Ar some point this morning one of the commentators remarked, in the context of long-hitting, that he had witnessed a US baseball star, Cuban Sammy Sousa, giving an exhibition of spectacular hitting here in UK. Just to point out that Sammy is from Dominican Republic - not Cuba. I wish I had been there to see it!
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Will the selectors realise their error of sending a boy to do a man's job and select Shah for the second test ?
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Aggers says "That is the difference between good Test players, and great ones: the great ones do not get themselves out once they are set." A little bit glib I think. The 'great' test players get set more often than the good ones would be a little closer to reality - I doubt if Aggers can name any great player who has never got out when set. However we did need Bell to push on, as we needed Prior to read the situation better.
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Prior's dismissal was woeful indeed and should he fail again in the second innings or perform poorly with the gloves, then the end of his test career will be nigh. Frankly, I favour Ambrose as a replacement, but I don't understand the obsession with having a wicketkeeper-batsman. At the end of the day, you want someone who will take catches and execute stumpings, as well as not conceding too many extras. Sangakkara is rightly praised for his batting ability, but his wicket-keeping is phenomenally good (even if P. Jayawardene has been preferred here). Batting is nice, but he doesn't have to be top-notch: that's the job of the top and upper-middle order (e.g. 1-7). We should be looking for another Godfrey Evans, not another Adam Gilchrist.
I think England are still marginal favourites for this match, but a lot can change. One thing to remember is that although the pitch will progressively get better for Murali,that means it will also get better for Panesar, ergo: we could see some real spinning fireworks (figuratively) over the next 3 days.
I'm a little disappointed with Bopara's form, but give him more bowling time (he did have a catch put down by Bell off his only over) and time in the middle and he could really shine as an all-rounder.
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I won't be surprised if England win this one. Kandy has been 'the' most un-Sri Lankan venue for the home team. Good seam/swing attacks from the Pakistani's and the Proteas have always had the Lankans in trouble even when Arjuna Ranatunge and Aravinda de Silva were around. I think Hoggard will create problems for them even in the 2nd innings.
I see some are having a go at Murali's "failure" in Australia last month. What these critics are conveniently forgetting is that he was playing competitive cricket after a 3 month lay-off and the support crew never turned up. This combined with the strange decision by 2006's best Test captain, Mahela Jayawardene to put the Aussies in at Brisbane nullified Murali's threat. The Warne-faction equally conveniently omit mentioning the fact that when Warne came on to bowl at least 2-3 wickets were down nearly always courtesy Messr. McGrath, Gillespie or Lee. No such luck for Murali. Warne himself in a recent article of his suggested that Murali ideally should want to be bowling with at least 1 or 2 wickets down - surely admitting his own liking and indeed what he got when he, Warne, bowled.
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Murali is a chucker, always has been always will be. To compare him to Warne is a disgrace. True Warne and the Australians take gamesmanship to the extreme and often far too far, but at least the delivery that went down was fair. Same can't be said for Murali hollow record really.
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BIG L - England are NOT set between numbers 1 and 5.
cook
bell
strauss (c)
peiterson
shah
is what it should be. everyone knows that, right?
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Murali's bowling action comes across visually as a clear example of chucking. I know that he and all of Sri Lanka claim a deformity in his arm, and that his action has been overlooked by the ICC based on tests in Australia. Nevertheless, because of the visual effect of chucking, I personally believe Murali should have stepped aside from test cricket years ago, and hence I do not view his overtaking Warne's record as an achievment, neither do I see him anywhere near Warne's abilities as an outstanding and great cricketer.
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Congratulations to Murali on performing one of the biggest heists in world sport.
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It will be interesting to see what Aggers says about England's tail today having spent two days telling us it wouldn't contribute with the bat. Presumably he'll just avoid the issue and talk about Murali as he did on TMS at lunchtime when given a lead into the subject by a colleague.
Aggers has spent a year trying to justify his now universally discredited view that Fletcher was right to pick Giles instead of Monty in the Ashes series. The fact is, if England don't pick their best four wicket taking bowlers, irrespective of batting ability, they will suffer. If the tail picks up runs, it's a bonus. This England bowing attack dismissed Sri Lanka, having lossed the toss, on the first day of a test match, for less than 200. Their job was done.
How many more runs would England have faced had they picked a weaker attack? We'll never know but a bowler has to get an awfull lot of runs to make up for lack of penetration with the ball. And even the most accomplished tail end batter can get a duck against the likes of Murali.
Lets hear no more of this 'lets pick bowlers that can bat' nonsense from Aggers.
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Sorry if this comment has already been made, but whilst the achievement of Murali is a historic moment in the history of cricket, what we have to remember is that for the majority of the time he has bowled for Sri Lanka the bowlers at the other end have been pretty ineffective, thus giving Murali more opportunity to get wickets - hence the 61 5 wicket innings. If you look at Warnes achievements, his total of wickets came with the likes of McGrath, Gillespie, Lee, and a lot more quality bowlers competing against him, and also getting 200-300 odd wickets. How many Sri Lankan bowlers can say they have achieved this? Vaas is the only one that comes to mind.
What he has achieved will be hard to beat, but let's not forget the circumstances he has achieved this volume of wickets ( as the only real bowler of quality in the Sri Lankan Team) versus the quality of bowlers that Warne had bowling with him, and still achieving 708 wickets.
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That Murali has done it is no surprise at all ! And he deserves to be applauded for this stupendous achievement. Well done Murali ... keep going till you reach the magic four-figure mark ! You will get there ... sooner than you think ! Cheers !
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My reaction to Murali's record?
No ball.
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Harsh on Bell. Sangakkara presumably by your definition isn't a great batsmen either because he got out on 92. What nonsence, especially in the context of a low scoring first innings for both teams. Bell's 83 is worth 100 plus on a different wicket. Bell should have some praise for a great knock in Sri Lanka's testing conditions. Why do our commentators find it so hard to praise England players and so ready to praise the opposition. Bell at 25 is still a young player. I hope he still tries to extend himself and bats positively. He didn't just hit it tamely to the fielder either. It was a thick edge and the fielder had to make a brilliant diving catch to get him out. Presumably some credit has to go to Murali.
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The only reason Murali's action is legal is because they changed the rules to allow it. That is what makes his record hollow and ungenuine.
Warne bowled his whole life and career with a legal action, Murali, Sri Lanka, and the sub continent played the race card when Murali CORRECTLY was charged with throwing, and so the ICC decided they would change the rules to allow him to keep playing because of his deformity.
So if Steven Hawkings attaches a bowling machine to his chair, does that mean we should change the rules again to allow for his deformity?
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All the talk around Murali's great feat is being over-shadowed by people carping on about his action. It's been investigated and ruled fair. End of discussion. I suppose Bodyline 75 years ago was fair?
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