Caribbean Times 28th Issue

Monday 13th June 2016 c a r i b b e a n t i m e s . a g 21
Hundred eludes Hales, wickets elude England
LORD’S - England
would have had two main
ambitions on a bedraggled
fourth day at Lord’s. The first
would have been to make
incursions into Sri Lanka’s
second innings to prepare
a route to victory and a 3-0
clean sweep in the series; the
second, a maiden Test hundred
for Alex Hales. Neither
eventuated as Sri Lanka continued
to resist gamely in the
final Test.
Left with 12 overs to see
out at the end of the day, Sri
Lanka’s openers clipped 32
from the 362 needed for victory.
Alastair Cook’s declaration
at 233 for 7 was well
judged, a touch more generous
perhaps than if the series
had been level.
The pitch is a little uneven,
but nothing excessive
and, judging by the sober
way Dimuth Karunaratne
and Kaushal Silva went
about their work, Sri Lanka
look in the mood to scrap every
inch of the way.
Hales is getting closer
to a treasured first Test hundred,
but he will have to wait
a while yet. He was on 94,
only six runs short, when
he fell lbw only 10 minutes
before tea, trying to turn Angelo
Mathews quietly on the
leg side.
He reviewed umpire Rod
Tucker’s decision, but it was
with a wan expression from
a man fearing the worst.
Ball-tracking technology
held that the ball would have
struck the top of leg stump.
Alex Hales played a solid innings for England.
With two 80s to his name
in the series, Hales could at
least console himself that he
had done much to implant
himself at the top of the order,
his composed, if occasionally
fortunate, innings
providing more evidence
that he can successfully adjust
to the demands of the
he suffered a replica of Joe
Root’s dismissal the previous
day - his off stump hit
by a shooter from Nuwan
Pradeep - only for umpire
Tucker to call no-ball.
TV replays suggested
that Pradeep’s heel was behind
the line on first impact,
the umpire perhaps being
five-day game. Without fooled by the bowler’s foot
repeated self-destruction
against Sri Lanka’s spinners
earlier in the series, he could
have been basking in something
even better.
Rain had prevented a
start until 2.40pm, but England
held an overnight lead
of 237 and, despite several
more pesky showers, the day
yielded 45 overs, enough to
keep the Test meaningful.
Hales’ composure held
England’s second innings
together, even if he was
not without fortune. On 58,
slipping forward on landing.
Understandable complaints
that international
umpires were ignoring repeated
no-balls so that they
could concentrate on events
at the business end of the
pitch seem to have caused a
recent reassessment of that
approach, but Tucker’s noball
call for such a borderline
delivery - a wrong call
as it turned out - will not allay
concerns.
With no chance under
current regulations to use
TV evidence to reverse the
decision, Sri Lanka were
understandably aggrieved.
Those regulations were already
due to be examined at
the ICC annual meeting in
Edinburgh later this month.
Undiplomatically, Sri
Lanka responded by hanging
the national flag from
the Lord’s balcony, which
could either be regarded as
a plucky statement to their
players that they would fight
on regardless of their mounting
ill luck or, conversely, as
an infantile gesture carrying
the implication of umpiring
bias.
The request soon came
through for them to take it
down: Lord’s does not allow
flags of any description,
certainly not from dressing
room balconies.
Thilanga Sumathipala,
cont’d on pg 23