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Filed under England vs Srilanka

Sri Lanka vs England - 2nd ODI at Dambulla. 4 october 2007, Day-night. England won by 65 runs. series 1-1 with 3 to come.

Geraint Jones, Chris Reed, Paul Nixon, Matt Prior, Vikram Solanki and now Phil Mustard -- a simple list of wicket-keeper that have played for England in last 2 years. doesn't this ring an alarm inside an English cricket fan?

At a time when Gilchrist, Dhoni, Boucher, Sangakkara & even Brenden McCullum of New Zealand are doing great job with bat and gloves, England is left among Windies, Pakistani's who don't have a wicket-keeping all rounder in their line-up. Result is lack of captain's confidence in his own run machines.

New captain Paul Collingwood enforced this win over home team because Phil Mustard played a vital innings as an opener. Hopefully this little man can hold on to his England cap longer than others mentioned.

Back to the Dambulla match, on a pitch that was not as freeflowing as others around the world, England opted to bat first. Ian Bell, Pietersen with Mustard got to double figures & importantly -- negotiated the new ball. In came captain Collingwood with confident Owais Shah. 98 run innings between the two was ice-caked with 70 between Swann & Shah = 234 on board for England.

Now Lankans had to get those runs. under lights, so openers were important.Inspired spell as always from Ryan Sidebottom, coupled with in form James Anderson reduced the home team to 38 for 4, then 6 down for 90. sixth wicket was captain Jayawardene, with whom, the sri lanka chances also went into the pavilion.

Few scorelines
Cook 1, Mustard 28(36), Bell 18,
Pietersen 12(41), Collingwood 42,
Owais Shah 82(92), Bopara 1, Swann 34.
England 234 for 8 in 50 overs.
Sri Lanka 169 all out in 44.3 overs.
Tharanga 8, Jayasuriya 10, Sangakkara 9,
Jayawardene 23, Chamara Silva 0, Dilshan 29,
Mubarak 44, Maharoof 6, Fernando 20.
2 wickets each for Sidebottom, Broad, Collingwood & Graeme Swann

Few notes to note.
-Sanath Jayasuriya was playing his 400 one day International - first player to do so. a truly phenomenal career that I should write about some day. But in this 2nd England vs Srilanka ODI 2007, I was surprised to see Jayasuriya doing a live on-field pitch inspection & expressing his comments minutes before the onedayer started. Former cricketer turned skysports commentatar Nick Knight was with him. Now : are the playing cricketers (who are not the captain of either side) allowed to express thoughts & talk to live media??

-A not-so-pretty dog came as a lost visitor while Dambulla was enjoying this keen battle. Keeper Sangakkara scred the doggy off the 30 yard circle & match went on. the next ball, a goundsman was pushing that same doggy off the playing area, yet the match went on. Two balls were bowled with 2 addition creatures inside the boundary lines... well, how often does that happen?

-A nicely-aimed throw from Jayawardene would have hit the stumps but umpire Tyron Wijewardene came into the line. After 36 ODIs & 4 test matches, one would think that Tyron would know where to run when fielders are about to break the stumps... just to finish - Owais Shah would have been out, but went on to score match-of-the-match award.

England in Sri Lanka 2007 - tour schedule.

England pull one over mighty lankans, series sets up