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Crushing defeat Sri Lanka beats England by an innings and 28 runs
Updated: Monday February 26, 2001 5:56 AM
GALLE, Sri Lanka (Reuters) -- Sri Lanka's Muttiah Muralitharan and Sanath Jayasuriya sent England spinning to a crushing defeat on the final afternoon of the first test on Monday as the match ended in umpiring controversy. The touring side, 217 behind after their first innings and resuming on 118 for two, lost by an innings and 28 runs as it collapsed to 189 all out. Its last seven wickets went down for 44 and its last five for 13. Sri Lanka had dominated the game after winning a vital toss on a pitch designed to turn from the first day and making an impressive 470 for five declared, with man-of-the-match Marvan Atapattu making 201 not out. A string of decisions, however, went against Nasser Hussain's side throughout the game, with Michael Atherton and Craig White the main victims on the final day. The opener departed, caught behind in the second over, without adding to his overnight score of 44. Angling his bat, he edged to Kumar Sangakkara, the ball appearing to graze the ground as it disappeared into his gloves. Atherton batted for four-and-a-quarter hours and England had hoped that he would form the mainstay of its rearguard action. Crumbling pitch White, England's last recognized batsman, was the eighth man to go, given out sweeping off the front foot against off-spinner Muralitharan. The full toss seemed to strike the all-rounder outside the off stump. Muralitharan, billed by his captain Jayasuriya as Sri Lanka's match-winner on the crumbling pitch, took four for 66 as he mopped up the tail. But Jayasuriya, bowling left-arm spin, outdid him with four for 44 and eight wickets in the match. England's hopes of salvaging the game were all but over by lunch, with Atherton, Graham Thorpe and Graeme Hick back in the pavilion. Thorpe was trapped lbw on the back foot by off-spinner Kumar Dharmasena for 12 to make it 145 for four and Graeme Hick, after taking 27 balls to get off the mark, was then brilliantly caught for six off Jayasuriya's left-arm spin by Mahela Jayawardene at first slip. Hick, handed a one-match suspended ban after showing dissent over his first-innings dismissal, could consider himself unlucky again as he edged a copybook delivery only for the ball to ricochet off the wicketkeeper's gloves to Jayawardene. England coach Duncan Fletcher stopped just short of openly attacking the umpires after his side's controversial defeat. Fletcher said he was not allowed to comment directly before adding: "All I can say is that if you were watching and didn't see what happened, you must be blind." Captain Nasser Hussain added: "It's not for me to comment on. We have to sit down and take the heat out of the situation." Asked about the hot conditions, he said: "The heat is the last of our worries at the moment." The only cheer for England came from Alec Stewart. Unhappy with his first-innings dismissal, when he was given out lbw to a ball which appeared to pitch outside the leg stump, he responded by passing 7,000 test runs during his undefeated innings of 34. Sri Lanka, however, was too powerful on a track ideally suited to its attack. It was its second consecutive innings victory at the ground after it beat South Africa at the Galle International Stadium last year. The two teams observed a two-minute silence before the start following the death of Sir Donald Bradman. They also wore black armbands. The second of the three-test series begins in Kandy on March 7.
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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