da bwin： Not content with locking them out of the final Test with a steadfast and brilliant 149 not out, Mahela Jayawardene accused England afterwards of lacking the will to win
Andrew Miller at Galle19-Dec-2007
Mahela Jayawardene felt England ‘came hard at us but then gave up pretty easily’ © Getty Images
England’s hopes of squaring their series against Sri Lanka are all butover, after an abject second-day surrender at Galle. The city’sseventeenth-century walls have withstood mightier invaders than havebeen on display these past two days, and by the close of play,England’s tormentor-in-chief, Mahela Jayawardene, had taken togoading them from the ramparts. Not content with locking them out ofthe contest with a steadfast and brilliant 149 not out, he accusedthem afterwards of lacking the will to win.”At times I felt they came hard at us but then gave up pretty easily,”said Jayawardene. “I was surprised. When you’re one-down you shouldtry to attack more and create more opportunities. But they were a bitnegative with their over-rates so I knew they were not pushing us thatmuch. We took that advantage away from them and put the pressure backon them, which happens when a side is in a negative frame of mind.It’s quite easy to push for a win now.”At 147 for 4 overnight, Sri Lanka’s position at the start of play wasprecarious. England had not bowled especially well on the opening day,but they papered over their inadequacies by showing great heart insapping heat. Second-time around, in cooler conditions and beneathheavy cloud cover, they capitulated. Thanks to an overnight tropicalstorm, the ball zipped around in the first session much as it had doneon the first morning, and it remained playful all day long. ButEngland’s only breakthroughs came via Ravi Bopara in a pre-teagiveaway.”We batted through some difficult conditions,” said Jayawardene. “Wewere in a bit of a bother last night, so my target was to get SriLanka out of a dangerous situation and take the game away fromEngland. The wicket still had quite a bit even when Ryan [Sidebottom]was bowling with a 70-over old ball, but they didn’t bowl thatstraight to me so I managed to be pretty patient. With the movement onthis pitch you can create opportunities, and hopefully our guys willbe better than that.”A spate of dropped catches undermined England’s efforts, but thebottom line was that they were not equal to the challenge thatJayawardene posed. “We’ve no complaints,” said their coach, PeterMoores. “The pitch has done enough for us to bowl them out, we justhaven’t bowled well enough. We went chasing wickets, got a bit toofull and weren’t consistent enough. And we’ve had chances and wemissed them.”The first of those opportunities came as early as the tenth ball ofthe day, when Alastair Cook failed to cling onto a sharp chance in thegully, and things went steadily downhill from there. Matt Priorendured another rough day with two misses diving to his right, takingEngland’s series tally of misses in the slip cordon to six. A wealthof expertise in that area has been lost in recent months – AndrewFlintoff, Marcus Trescothick and Andrew Strauss were permanentfeatures in Duncan Fletcher’s heyday – but nevertheless, Mooresadmitted that the quality of his team’s close catching was a growingconcern.”We’ve been working very hard on our fielding full stop, and we’vemade some reasonably good moves, but it takes time to improve when youchange people,” he said. “We’ve lost some of our natural slippers likeFred [Flintoff], but it’s an ongoing thing. The ECB have signed afielding coach [Richard Halsall] because we know it’s something wehave to address, not just at international level but all the way down.It’s a key area of top-flight sport, and we’re not hiding from thatfact. When you drop a catch it’s the worst feeling in the world.”However, the fact that England are being asked to comment on suchbasic areas of their game in the middle of a match emphasises the gulfthat has grown between the two teams over the course of this series.England’s youthful exuberance kept them in the contest for the firstthree days at Kandy, but since then Sri Lanka have displayed theirgreater expertise at every critical juncture. “Sri Lanka are a goodteam, there’s no doubt about that,” said Moores. “England are agrowing team with lots of changes, which is quite exciting. We’ve gota couple of debutants and we’ve lost a couple of senior players,that’s part of international sport. We’ve been put through some propertough cricket and we’ve got to find some answers.”The first task is to battle through to the end of a tour that, ontoday’s evidence, has already proved tougher than most of the Englishparticipants had bargained for. Only Michael Vaughan and PaulCollingwood have had prior experience of the Galle blast-furnaceeffect, and after ten hard-fought days at Kandy and Colombo, it was aweary band of cricketers who went through their paces in the field.”Fifteen days’ cricket in 22 is hard work, but we’re not into makingexcuses,” said Moores. “You take the good days with the bad days as asportsman. We always knew it was an intense schedule, but it’s thesame for both sides, and it’s one we signed up for.”