Issue 158

England make history as bowlers dominate

22nd October 2007

The outlook was bleak for England as they suffered an 119 run defeat in the first ODI to Sri Lanka in Dambulla on October 1. Thoroughly outplayed by the World Cup runners-up, the batting line-up had no answer to both the slow wicket or to pace bowler Farveez Maharoof, who returned figures of 4 for 31.

The fresh optimism which had been created by the 4-3 home series victory against India had been all but eradicated, especially after the poor showing at the Twenty20 World Cup a month ago. One must've been forgiven for thinking that England would suffer a similar beating at the hands of Sri Lanka to the one they received on home soil less than eighteen months ago when they were whitewashed 5-0.

However, very few would've predicted what was to happen over the course of this one-day series as England won the next three matches, winning a one-day series in Sri Lanka for the first time in their history, and all with a game to spare. During that five match one-day series against Sri Lanka in the early summer of 2006, the English bowling line-up, consisting of the likes of Steve Harmison, Liam Plunkett and Sajid Mahmood were severely criticised from all quarters as they were blown away by an explosive Sri Lankan batting line-up.

No such criticism can be aimed at this particular bowling attack. The trio of James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Ryan Sidebottom, on wickets which were slow and bowler-friendly pushed home their advantage with great effectiveness. The star of this three pronged pace attack was undoubtedly Sidebottom who bowled with the type of consistency of which Glenn McGrath would've been proud. The fact that he averaged an incredible 13.83 with the ball throughout the series tells a story in itself as he justifiably picked up the man of the series award.

However, it wasn't simply the three pacemen who rattled the Sri Lankan batting line-up as the selection of Graeme Swann proved was thoroughly vindicated. Even in the first ODI the warning signs were there for Sri Lanka as he bowled his off-spin with a threatening amount of turn and hit a battling 24 in a lost cause. His talents were displayed most clearly in the crucial third ODI in which he destroyed the Sri Lankan lower-middle order with figures of 4 for 34 and hit a crucial score of 25 as England won by two wickets. Swann adds good balance to an England team which has lacked a genuine no.8 since Ashley Giles left the international scene and with Stuart Broad at no.9 looking more and more an accomplished finisher of matches with the bat to go along with his immense bowling talent, the England tail looks strong.

As well as this, England showed a vast improvement in the outfield from that seen by them in an error-stricken Twenty20 World Cup. The intensity shown in the field was massively important in a series in which runs were hard to come by for both teams.

Despite their historic victory though, England still have areas to improve, especially in the batting department. The entire batting line-up was dogged by inconsistency and this is clearly shown by the fact that the highest batting average for the series was Alistair Cook's 31, only three fifties being scored by this England team throughout the series. Considering also that Sri Lanka were playing without their best bowler, the injured Muttiah Muralitharan, these statistics make for poor reading.

Take nothing away from England though; they'd never won a one-day series in Sri Lanka before and this is a truly promising sign of things to come.

Max Gibbons