Dilshan ruled out of final Test

Strauss hoping to win at Rose Bowl after draw at Lord’s.

LONDON:

Sri Lanka will be facing England in the final Test without their captain Tillekaratne Dilshan, after the opener broke his thumb during his first-innings knock of 193 in the Lord’s Test, which ended in a draw.

The result left England 1-0 up heading into the third Test. Dilshan was struck on the thumb by a Chris Tremlett delivery on day three of the match. The captain confirmed that he will not be available for the encounter at Rose Bowl.

“The doctors have told me it will take three to four weeks to heal but I have an outside chance of being ready for the One-Day Internationals,” he said.

Dilshan, however, was pleased by his side’s increased resilience following their collapse in the first Test.

“Overall I am happy,” he said. “It was all round a very good performance after the Cardiff match.”

England captain Andrew Strauss felt that his side needed a special effort to conjure up a win from the high-scoring Test match.

“We thought we had a chance [of winning] if we took early wickets,” said Strauss. “We needed something special to happen.

“It was not the best Test we have ever played but we move onto the Rose Bowl and hopefully we can make it 2-0.”

On the incident involving Matt Prior breaking a window at the Lord’s pavilion, Strauss said that the wicket-keeper was “genuinely contrite” over it. Prior found himself apologising to a female spectator who suffered a minor cut to her ankle after shattered glass fell into the seating area below England’s dressing room. The incident came after Prior was run out in the second-innings.

Meanwhile, Alastair Cook, England’s premier performer of the match continued a remarkable sequence with his first-innings 96 in the match being the only time in the left-hander’s last four Test knocks he has failed to reach three-figures. He followed it up with a second-innings 106.

However, the opener left himself open to criticism when he took too long to get to his hundred when England were searching for quick runs.

“When we went out we were only 140 runs ahead, so if you lose a couple of wickets it’s not a great position,” he explained. “It was about getting through that first hour.”

There was never a realistic chance of Sri Lanka reaching the required target, with the more immediate question being whether they could avoid losing all 10 wickets in the 58 overs left when their second-innings started, after their astonishing collapse in the first Test.

But they held out thanks to Tharanga Parnavitana’s dogged 44 as England were also frustrated by the 63 overs lost due to bad weather.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 9^th, 2011.