Sri Lanka edge England on last ball
Sri Lanka's Dilhara Fernando celebrates clean bowling England's Ravi Bopara with the last ball of the Cricket World Cup Super 8s match between England and Sri Lanka at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in St Peter's, Antigua on Wednesday. Sri Lanka won the match by 2 runs. AP |
England needed three more runs against Sri Lanka on Wednesday, having pulled itself from a position of abject failure to the brink of an unlikely World Cup victory.
Ravi Bopara had hit 52 to resurrect his team and faced seamer Dilhara Fernando for the final delivery.
Fernando pulled out of his run up at the last minute and, at the second attempt, sent the ball flashing past Bopara's bat and into his stumps.
Sri Lanka had edged England in a thrilling finish to win their Super 8s match by two runs and take a huge step toward the semifinals.
"In the end, we held our nerves," Sri Lanka captain Mahela Jayawardene said.
"What strategy did we have for the last over? No strategy. I can't remember what I was thinking. Every loose ball could have gone for runs."
Sri Lanka had hit a below par 235 at Antigua's Sir Vivian Richards Cricket Ground but spinners Sanath Jayasuriya, Muttiah Muralitharan and Tillekeratne Dilshan then restricted England to 133-6 in the 34th over.
However, a seventh-wicket partnership of 87 between Bopara and Paul Nixon gave England an unexpected chance.
Nixon was eventually out for a 44-ball 42 in the penultimate over and England was left needing 12 off the last over with Bopara at the crease with tailender Sajid Mahmood.
Fernando leaked nine runs before the final ball of the 50 overs made it 233 for eight and clinched victory.
Fernando finished with three wickets for 41, while Lasith Malinga took 2-50.
"I had a quick chat with Nicko about knocking it about," Bopara said. "He said that if we knocked it about for the next 10 or 15 overs, we'll see where we're at for the last five.
"We went that way but it's hard to score five or six an over."
Mahmood took four wickets for 50 runs and Andrew Flintoff 3-35 as England dismissed Sri Lanka on the last ball of its innings.
Chasing a reasonably low total, England's openers again failed to give their team a platform and two unlucky dismissals contributed to a disappointing start.
Vaughan was given out by umpire Billy Bowden caught behind, although replays showed the ball brushed his thigh, and Ian Bell was run out for 47 after his bat bounced up as he grounded it.
Jayasuriya stooped to deflect a shot from his own bowling by Pietersen and Bell's bat bounced just as the ball hit the wicket.
"We were outstanding with the ball," Vaughan said. "There were just a couple of errors with the batting."
Pietersen, ranked one-day cricket's top batsmen, hit 58 for his 14th one-day half century before he got a leading edge and was caught and bowled by a jubilant Muralitharan.
Flintoff and Paul Collingwood both were out to seamer Dilhara Fernando in the 34th over, and England had lost four wickets for 32 off eight overs to sit at 133-6 with the tail exposed.
Earlier Vaughan won the toss and Mahmood dismissed Sri Lanka's star opener Jayasuriya and No. 3 Kumar Sangakkara.
The 37-year-old Jayasuriya, who hit 82 in 44 balls to lead Sri Lanka to victory over England in the 1996 World Cup, raced to 25 before Mahmood caught the bottom of his bat and the ball lifted up to hit the top of the wicket.
Sangakkara was then caught unawares by a slow full toss from Mahmood and caught out for 17.
A third-wicket stand between Upul Tharanga and Jayawardene was the cornerstone of Sri Lanka's 235. Tharanga made 62 and Jayawardene 56 in a 91-run stand that, despite being below par for the 1996 champions, proved to be enough.
Agencies
(China Daily 04/06/2007 page24)
