England vs Sri Lanka, 1st Test

First topic message reminder :

Venue
Headingley, Leeds

Dates
19th - 23rd May 2016

TV Coverage
Live: Sky Sports 2 from 10am Daily
Highlights: Channel 5 19:00 Daily (also Sky Sports on differing channels and at differing times)



Officials

Umpires - Aleem Dar and RJ Tucker
TV umpire - S Ravi
Match referee - AJ Pycroft
Reserve umpire - PJ Hartley



Weather




Form

England - LWDWL
Sri Lanka - LLWWL



Teams:

England - 1 Alastair Cook (capt), 2 Alex Hales, 3 Nick Compton, 4 Joe Root, 5 James Vince, 6 Ben Stokes, 7 Jonny Bairstow (wk), 8 Moeen Ali, 9 Stuart Broad, 10 Steven Finn, 11 James Anderson

Sri Lanka - 1 Dimuth Karunaratne, 2 Kaushal Silva, 3 Kusal Mendis, 4 Dinesh Chandimal (wk), 5 Angelo Mathews (capt), 6 Lahiru Thirimanne, 7 Dasun Shanaka, 8 Rangana Herath, 9 Dushmantha Chameera, 10 Shaminda Eranga 11 Nuwan Pradeep



Pending Milestones:

Alastair Cook needs 36 runs to become the 12th player - and first Englishman - to 10,000 in Tests. If he gets there in this Test, he will be the youngest to do so.
Rangana Herath needs three wickets to become the third Sri Lankan to 300 in Tests.

Herath mightve thanked Finn on the way off for ending his torture

dyrewolfe wrote:

Duty281 wrote:Anderson 9/44, but Bairstow should still get MOTM!

A close thing between Bairstow and Billy the Barmy Army trumpeter. Enjoyed his renditions of the Jurassic Park theme and the Imperial March.

Actually wouldn't begrudge Jimmy the MOTM award as he's made a massive contribution too.

What a lad. And they still won't let him play at Lord's!

Miss 3 hours for rain, play an hour then go off for tea. Cricket really makes itself look foolish sometimes. Bet it starts raining.

Two in one over for Finn.

Regardless of the conditions, this has been a pathetic display by the Sri Lankan batsmen. If it wasn't for the rain/bad light, this game wouldn't have lasted two full days.

Duty281 wrote:

dyrewolfe wrote:

Duty281 wrote:Anderson 9/44, but Bairstow should still get MOTM!

A close thing between Bairstow and Billy the Barmy Army trumpeter. Enjoyed his renditions of the Jurassic Park theme and the Imperial March.

Actually wouldn't begrudge Jimmy the MOTM award as he's made a massive contribution too.

What a lad. And they still won't let him play at Lord's!

I know - a terrible shame! Probably upsets the blazer brigade...


Wow - Finn really joining the party, removing Chameera and Thirimanne in the space of 3 balls! Nearly done now.


Can Jimmy get the last one for his 10-for?



EDIT:
------------------

Jimmy duly does the biz - bowling Pradeep for his 10wm. Finishes with figures of 10-45. Terrific performance!

Fantastic performance by England...Sri Lanka need to get some serious practice in to try and get used to the conditions here.

Duty281 wrote:Sri Lanka to be rolled out for 119. Anderson with five.

Start as they mean to go on!

Oh, I was predicting the second innings, not the first.

All over. Well done England.

Too easy for England, pleased with the win but that was a fairly rubbish Test match as SL were beyond woeful with the bat

Pretty comfortable for England today, eh ?  Missed a lot of it but got home in time for the last five wickets ...Jimmy was seemingly intent on killing any ideas that he might be past it - looked almost unplayable , as in the first innings.

Sri Lanka just not at the races once they started batting.  

I see Duty predicted their exact second innings score before the first innings - his crystal ball must have been set on fast forward...

Oh I see he has already claimed that now

VTR wrote:Too easy for England, pleased with the win but that was a fairly rubbish Test match as SL were beyond woeful with the bat

Quite agree. Good to see England win, yes, but it's never healthy for the state of Test cricket to see one of its teams dispatched with such ease.

Reminded me of when England decimated Bangladesh in 2005.

Professional by England but not a test that will live long in the memory. Rain provided more resistance to this being a 2 day game than Sri Lanka.

Yeah exactly, file it with the very worst early summer opponents along with Zimbabwe 2003, Windies 2009 and no doubt a few others

Though this comment might look stupid if SL come back and take the series!

Tough on Anderson with a match tenfer (for a measly 45 as well) but completely right that Bairstow got the MotM. Incredible now to recall that SL were looking a reasonable team and on top when he first got involved in the action with England 83/5. Besides his innings, chuck into the mix 9 catches and no byes and it's a done deal. Hopefully he can take confidence from this going forward.

Sri Lanka's tail is up there with England's during the 90's surely?

Horrific stuff from them

Bairstow rightly getting MOTM, his batting was different class and has cemented his place in the side for a fair while now, must help his confidence not fearing for his place.

Sri Lanka were woeful but Anderson and Broad are pretty much impossible to play against in England if the ball swings, better sides have been blown away by the pair. I think i'd confidently call them the best opening bowling partnership i've ever seen for England.

Basically we beat Sri Lanka with Hales, Bairstow, Anderson and Broad

If Broad and Anderson were bowling at our batsmen they would have been just as successful.

Well either Lanka was incompetent or uninterested.....like WI, BD and India under Dhoni in tests have been.

I hope it was incompetence....for that can be compensated with effort and grit and fight and determination.....

If it's lack of interest.....it could be a terminal blow to the aim of keeping test cricket alive.

we will see how hard they fight and improve in the next test.....
for any form of game to stay alive.......the fans must see their team compete.

or is it just a plan to win the series through "limited over points "