England / Sri Lanka

Playing Sri Lanka will be hard work

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Simon says 'touch your head' Alastair

A good first day of Test cricket for England, in the sense that it put them straight. Playing Sri Lanka demands perseverance. It demands perseverance so earnest it comes with a pipe and a scowl.

If Sri Lanka’s feisty wins in their warm-up matches hadn’t got the message through to England, today’s play surely did. The ball swung, but wickets didn’t tumble.

Tillakaratne Dilshan largely renounced his favourite shot, the flail, while Tharanga Paranavitana continues to display a refreshing reluctance to hit the ball unless he absolutely has to.

It is good, old-fashioned Test cricket: slightly boring and a tad irritating. Heaven.

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12 comments

  1. I had to turn TMS off this evening. Roshan Abeysinghe was driving me mad with his commentary. He was far too excitable, I kept thinking a wicket had fallen when all had happened was a single for Sri Lanka.

    I like my commentators calm and biased towards England. They were much better when it was raining this morning.

  2. Indeed, we enjoyed the excitable tones of Roshan on Sri Lankan radio for the first few matches of the ICC World Cup 2011.

    But on a sun terrace in a small boutique hotel near Galle, no amount of excitable commentary can raise the blood pressure.

    I think I did Paranavitana a disservice in an earlier thread by alluding to his name in terms of a 1980’s pop duo. I was thinking Scritti Politti, Haysi Fantayzee, Milli Vanilli…

    … on reflection, though, 1980’s pop trio, Bananarama, is closer to the mark.

    I’m hoping for a long weekend of glorious test cricket – the early doors rain and beligerence are setting that up nicely.

    Heaven? The master of understatement, is our KC.

  3. Anderson said in his inteview that “they left well”, which I thought expressed his frustration to a T.

    Best for me, though, was Anderson’s opening spell. It wasn’t that when he was taken off he had 7-2-7-0, it was that I wasn’t in the slightest bit surprised. That’s the level that his game has changed in the last few years. 7 runs from 7 overs? Why of course, that’s what Jimmy Anderson does, you know.

    1. Did he really say that? Must be a shock for him after playing the hyperactive puppies (there’s a ball, a ball, must chase ball, ball, must… oh) that masquerade as Aus cricketers.

  4. This article is extremely lame. Nothing to laugh at all. Also it could have been more funnier!!! I’m just not amused at all…btw who is Alex Bowden? I am sure ppl will remember Murali long after him.

    2. I crave your indulgence, O mighty King. Shall we pretend that this entire Appeal does not exist?

    3. We’d prefer that the original didn’t exist really – the Cricinfo original.

  5. Thisara Perera, who is batting right now, is actually named Narangoda Liyanaarachchilage Thisara Chirantha Perera.

    Whoa!

    How is one supposed to pronounce chch?

    1. Quite straightforward, Nash. Just break it down like this:

      LEE – AN – ARE – A – CHCH – ILL – ARGE

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