England are overwhelmed
By Scyld Berry
(Filed: 02/07/2006)
England have been humiliated at one-day cricket frequently over the years, not least by Sri Lanka when they wiped England away in the 1996 World Cup quarter-final in Faisalabad.
Andrew Strauss: Powerless to act
It is difficult to believe, however, that any of England's defeats has been so comprehensive and humiliating as the one which left them with a 5-0 series whitewash. The only thing to be said in England's favour was that so few people watched it.
A year ago England were matching Australia, the World Cup holders, one-day game for one-day game. Since then Australia have maintained excellence and England have disintegrated, especially their bowling. England's batsmen were passable as they scored 321 runs on a Headingley pitch at its flattest and an outfield at its fastest. Their pace bowling was treated with the contempt it deserved.
The first difference between now and a year ago is that the personnel has changed just as much as it has in England's Test team. Of the team that shared the NatWest series against Australia, only two batsmen, Marcus Trescothick and Andrew Strauss, a wicketkeeper and a bowler remain. Four is not enough to constitute a nucleus.
The second major difference is that the England players now are without a shred of confidence. They take the field as if they expect the roof to fall in, and immediately it does, especially when batsmen of the quality of Sanath Jayasuriya, Upul Tharanga and Mahela Jayawardene are the demolition experts. Each of them hit two centuries in the series.
England are missing Troy Cooley, their former bowling coach, though not for his knowledge of bowling techniques and bio-mechanics. His successor, Kevin Shine, has proved himself a capable replacement in these respects. What they are missing is the confidence that Cooley imbued in England's bowlers, especially their pace attack. An affable soul, he was more an older brother than a coach, and created a warm, comforting tent within the camp for those who were about to go over the top.
These problems were then compounded when the one bowler who does remain from England's one-day team last year, Steve Harmison, expressed his wish to be a change bowler. He has sometimes been outstanding in the middle overs by containing batsmen with his height and bounce. But what the pace-bowling novices needed yesterday was a lead, and a couple of early wickets, not a finger in the dyke once it had burst all over Leeds.
A few comparative scores will illustrate how humiliatingly England were out-classed. After three overs England had scored one run, Sri Lanka 46. After ten overs the home side had made 39, the tourists 133. At this stage most normal captains, of normal pace attacks, would have taken a second power-play, but Strauss was simply powerless.
England recorded the highest total ever in a one-day international at Headingley; Sri Lanka surpassed it in only 37.3 overs. England's opening pair were in the fourth over before they scored a run off the bat. In the 27th over of their innings Jayasuriya and Tharanga set a new world record for the highest first- wicket partnership in one-day cricket, beating the 258 by India's Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar against Kenya, a non-Test nation.
Trescothick's century, the first for England in the series, gave an admirable example of acceleration as, after a cautious start, he finished with 121 from 118 balls. Alastair Cook made a second 40, promising a long-term future as a one-day opener; the others worked the ball around. A fantastic right-handed catch by Kumar Sangakkara ended Ian Bell's innings, but it was the end-product of an excellent tactic that kept Bell from scoring with pushes square on the offside. When England bowled, tactics were not discernible.
Trescothick's hundred was trumped by Jayasuriya and Tharanga. Seldom can any bowling at any level have been so punished for so long. To them it was a 20-over game with a bit tacked on. Strauss had nowhere to turn after using five bowlers in the first eight overs. So dire was the pace bowling that James Dalrymple had to bowl the eighth.
Never can Headingley have seen such quick scoring in an international game, not when Charlie Macartney scored a century before lunch in 1926, not when Don Bradman annihilated England in 1948. Sri Lanka cruised at more and less than ten runs an over. After only 13 overs they had scored 155, at which point Dalrymple returned to bring a modicum of decorum, but he had made the most notable fielding lapse when he dropped Jayasuriya on 30 at point off Liam Plunkett.
Kabir Ali will be a resilient soul if he ever plays for England again. In addition to the general malaise he has the specific problem of a low trajectory, like Matthew Hoggard. The crowd did not jeer, though, as the old Headingley crowd would have done. The expectations are too low for that.
Jayasuriya contributed 152, off only 99 balls, to the record opening stand of 286. Tharanga finished with 109 off 102 balls. Harmison finished with the most expensive figures of any England one-day bowler, beating the 83 conceded by Derek Pringle in the 1983 World Cup by 14 runs.
It would be good if such a defeat was so traumatic that it brought about a change in the English style of one-day cricket. The 1996 World Cup defeat encouraged county cricket to experiment with pinch-hitters and slow bowlers. The 5-0 humilation will have served some purpose if English bowlers become more accurate, instead of pitching short and wide under pressure, and if English batting develops more wristwork.
Jayasuriya is strong, even burly, but both he and Tharanga generate power from their wrists whereas English batting, which also used to be a matter of wristwork, has become a mixture of upper-body strength, forearms and heavy bats. Yesterday was a slap on the wrist for England by the Sri Lankans using theirs.
