Sri Lanka v England Test Series *** Spoilers ***

[Cosimo]

First Test

Monday, 26 March, Galle, 05:30

Second Test

Tuesday, 3 April, Colombo, 05:30

Squads

Sri Lanka: Mahela Jayawardena (captain),Tillakaratne Dilshan
, Tharanga Parnavithana, Lahiru Thirimanne, Kumar Sangakkara, Thilan Samaraweera (vice captain), Dinesh Chandimal, Prasanna Jayawardena (wkt), Suranga Lakmal, Dhammika Prasad, Chanaka Welagedara, Suraj Randiv, Rangana Herath, Chamara Silva

England: Andrew Strauss (captain), James Anderson, Ian Bell, Ravi Bopara, Tim Bresnan, Stuart Broad, Alastair Cook (vice captain), Steven Davies (wkt), Steven Finn, Monty Panesar, Samit Patel, Kevin Pietersen, Matt Prior (wkt), Graeme Swann, James Tredwell, Jonathan Trott.

Coverage

Sky Sports One, Radio 4 LW and BBC online

 

[Jimbeam3678]

Let's see if they have learnt how to bat spin yet!!

 

[Alpherah]

Two draws is my estimate.

 

[TheCenturion]

Two-test series suck balls

1-0 to SL me thinks.

 

[oli collett]

Sri Lanka's bowling attack is awful. Herath is OK but nowhere near the class of Ajmal, and all the England batsmen are looking pretty confident bar Bell, and I think his poor run will come to an end in this series. If Sri Lanka play to their only bowling strength in spin, they will then have to negotiate Swann/Panesar who are better bowlers than any of the Sri Lankan spinners.

1-0 England, Sri Lanka still have 2 world class batsmen that will be difficult to displace.

 

[Cosimo]

A six and Sri Lanka are 87-4.

 

[Cosimo]

Slow progress, 115-4 after 47 overs.

 

[Cosimo]

Chandimal out, 128-5.

 

[Cosimo]

Tea time and 168-5 after 61 overs.

 

[Cosimo]

Review and P Jayawardene out, 170-6.

 

[TheCenturion]

Oh dear 191/7

Can I change my prediction to 2-0 England?

 

[Cosimo]

Moved on to 229-7 after 75 overs.

 

[ringo747]

Poor Monty - two drops in two overs!

 

[Alpherah]

Oh Monty Seriously, stick him at Third man. We've known for ages he just can't catch so stick him somewhere 'safe' .

 

[Cosimo]

Moving closer to the 300, 285-8 after 87.

 

[ringo747]

Jayawardene is some batsman.

 

[Alpherah]

Jayawardene is some batsman.

Good strategy to counter Englands bowling .. target Monty!

 

[Cosimo]

That's it for the day, 289-8 after 90 with M Jayawardene 168 not out.

 

[oli collett]

Jayawardene - class act!

Would have taken that at the start of the day, but I do feel a bit disappointed given the start we've had. Bit worried about Swann though, he's not had a good 12 months it has to be said

 

[ringo747]

Jayawardene - class act!

Would have taken that at the start of the day, but I do feel a bit disappointed given the start we've had. Bit worried about Swann though, he's not had a good 12 months it has to be said

Swann really comes across as being a big kid that has had to share his new toy with his siblings. All this talk about how he doesn't feel threatened by Panesar and how he is the no1 spinner etc. All the mentions of it suggest he is VERY ruffled by other spinners and maybe is a bit unsecure about his own position.