Sri Lanka beat England by 75 runs
- Details
- Created on Friday, 30 March 2012 01:15
- Hits: 1195
Sri Lanka beat England by 75 runs in the first Test of the two-test series played in Galle International Cricket Stadium. Sri Lanka scored 318 and 214 in their two innings while England scored 193 and 264 in reply.
Rangana Herath picked up six wickets for 97 runs while Suraj Randiv picked up four wickets in England’s second innings. Herath picked up 12 wickets in the whole match having taken 6 wickets in the first innings as well. This is the first win for Sri Lanka at home since the retirement of spin icon Muttiah Muralitharan.
In Sri Lanka’s first innings skipper Mahela Jayawardene scored an impressive 180 which included 22 Fours and 3 sixes. All other Sri Lankan batsmen were out for lesser scores in this innings and none of them were able to reach even 30 runs.
In response England 193 runs and Ian Bell was the highest scorer for England with 52 runs. The England wickets tumbled one after the other in the face of Herath’s precisely pitched bowling. He took 6 wickets for 74 runs. Suraj Randiv took 2 wickets for 23 runs and Welagedera and Lakmal took one wicket each.
In the second innings Sri Lanka was all out for 214 runs and this made England to score 340 runs to win the match. However, they wee bundled out for 264 by accurate bowling again by Herath. 112 runs scored by Trott could not help England to avoid their eminent defeat. Herath again took 6 wickets in the 2nd innings as well for 97 runs this time. Randiv was the only other successful bowler who took the remaining 4 wickets for 74 runs.
Herath was adjudged the Player of the Match.
There was a large crowd including over 7,000 foreign, mostly British nationals to watch the match. All hotel rooms in Galle, Hikkaduwa and nearby hotels were occupied by the English cricket fans.
The 2nd Test will be played in Colombo from 3rd to 7th April. (niz).
