England captain Andrew Strauss prospers at crease for Middlesex as Sri Lankans toil
Middlesex (321-5) v Sri Lanka
By Scyld Berry, Uxbridge 10:22PM BST 14 May 2011
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Under a cold grey sky, at 11am in west London, the Sri Lankans’ tour of England began inauspiciously to the chants of Tamil demonstrators outside the ground protesting about genocide. By close of play the tourists’ prospects looked a little brighter, but not immensely.
Uxbridge’s pitch was flat, as usual, so Andrew Strauss helped himself to a century and shared a stand of 214 with Dan Housego, Middlesex’s highest for the second wicket against any touring team. The tourists’ attack was flat too.
Five of their best cricketers are yet to arrive from India and its Premier League, yet even at the outset of their tour Sri Lanka must be considered unlikely winners of any of the forthcoming three Tests.
Three of the five players who arrive this week are bowlers – along with the two very fine batsmen, Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene – but none of them has been pulling up trees in India, or even been selected much.
Post-Vaas and post-Murali, Sri Lanka’s bowling is on the bland side, and Dilhara Fernando, Suraj Randiv and Thisara Perera will have to peak in the four-day game against the Lions in Derby if they are to do much about it.
For Tillekeratne Dilshan, Sri Lanka’s new captain, it was a trying day as his opposite number so comfortably took the first round.
Dilshan rotated his bowlers alright, but he did not appear to guide them a lot, even though most of them are on their first tour of England; and while the pitch was all too like those back home, the overhead conditions offered something to swing bowlers.
Strauss, meanwhile, rebuffed those of his Middlesex team-mates who jest that his OBE stands for 'Only Bats for England’. He has not made many runs for Middlesex when an England player because his few games have come in early season, and against the Tiflex ball that is used in the second division, the county’s recent home.
Now he gave the Middlesex bowlers a long rest by batting with measured assurance.
Off the fifth ball of his season Strauss glanced to fine-leg, then he squirrelled a single to wide mid-on. As soon as the fast-medium left-armer Chanaka Welegedara offered width, he was cut for four, and as soon as he dropped short he was pulled.
An early close shave with a leg-before appeal was the one piece of luck in Strauss’s 151 from 223 balls, which ended with a pull to deep square after he had seen Housego through to his own hundred.
The England management were on the case, sending an analyst to film the tourists and especially their mystery spinner Ajantha Mendis, who began with the slope aiding his leg-break before switching ends to little effect. But he was something of a busted flush after his two games with Somerset.
Mendis gets side-spin but not overspin, so his flight has no loop or deceiving dip. And if the batsman can read which way Mendis is turning – a big if for batsmen facing him for the first time – there is no need for him to force the pace by going down the pitch, for in England so far this season he has been frequently dropping short.
Mendis had a hold over England in the World Cup quarter-final but his mystique is vanishing so fast it is possible the left-arm spinner, Rangana Herath, or the conventional off-spinner Randiv, will be the sole specialist.
Herath was more economical than Mendis but not much more threatening: both of his wickets came from mis-sweeps, with Housego scooping to short fine-leg.
By then Housego, neat and methodical, had reached the second century of his first-class career, the first having come against Oxford. “I bet they had a better attack,” was a sardonic comment in the press tent.
An asset the Sri Lankans have – to set against their lack of tall fast bowlers – is the wicketkeeping of Prasanna Jayawardena, who dived low to his right to take the first wicket.
He can bat capably too at No 7, but that still leaves Sri Lanka in need of a number six batsman: Dinish Chandimal, a 21 year-old, will do them a favour if he stands up today after Middlesex resume on 321 for five.
After tea the group of 50-odd demonstrators fell silent. 'Stop Genocide’ and 'Boycott Sri Lanka’ they had chanted in protest at the treatment of Tamils during the civil war.
Whether any politician was listening is doubtful, given the minerals in Sri Lanka and the oil offshore.
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