Player of the Match
Player of the Match
2090dThe Report by David Hopps

SL snatch victory after defiant Moeen ton

Sri Lanka won when they had almost abandoned hope. From the penultimate ball of a gripping final day, Shaminda Eranga found a hostile delivery to bring their first series win in England

Match Centre

Statistics

Best performances - Batsmen

AD Mathews
AD Mathews
160(249) 25x4 - 1x6
Control %82%
  • Productive Shot
  • flick
  • 32 runs
  • 3x4 - 1x6
8 16 13 27 26 10 25 35
SD Robson
SD Robson
127(253) 15x4 - 1x6
Control %92%
  • Productive Shot
  • cover drive
  • 23 runs
  • 3x4 - 0x6
26 16 8 6 25 20 8 18

Best performances - Bowlers

KTGD Prasad
KTGD Prasad
O22
M5
R50
W5
Eco2.27
RHB
OFFLEG
1W
1W
1W
  • FTFULL TOSS
  • YYORKER
  • FFULL LENGTH
  • GGOOD LENGTH
  • SGSHORT OF GOOD LENGTH
  • SSHORT LENGTH
LHB
LEGOFF
1W
1W
LE Plunkett
LE Plunkett
O15.5
M2
R64
W5
Eco4.04
RHB
OFFLEG
1W
2W
  • FTFULL TOSS
  • YYORKER
  • FFULL LENGTH
  • GGOOD LENGTH
  • SGSHORT OF GOOD LENGTH
  • SSHORT LENGTH
LHB
LEGOFF
1W
1W

Match Details

Toss

England , elected to field first

Player Of The Match

Player Of The Series

Series result

Sri Lanka won the 2-match series 1-0

Match number

Season

Hours of play (local time)

11am start, Lunch 13.00-13.40, Tea 15.40-16.00, Close 18.00

Match days

20,21,22,23,24 June 2014 (5-day match)

TV Umpires

Reserve Umpire

Match Referee

Scorecard Summary

SRI LANKA 257(69.5 OVERS)
1ST INNINGS

ENGLAND 365(115.5 OVERS)
1ST INNINGS

SRI LANKA 457(132.5 OVERS)
2ND INNINGS

ENGLAND 249(116.5 OVERS)
2ND INNINGS

Commentator: Andrew McGlashan

The Sri Lankans spray the champagne and you would imagine the celebrations will go on for a long time. What a fantastic result for them. They now head home to prepare to host South Africa for an ODI series starting a week on Sunday, July 6 with Tests to follow too and a series against Pakistan to come later in the summer. What confidence they will take from this. For England, they have a week off before India arrive for a marquee five-match series beginning on July 9. That's when the team here will be back, so see you then...

The winning captain Angelo Mathews: "We play a lot of cricket in the subcontinent and people don't expect us to do it in England but we've played some great cricket. We kept trying, I threw the ball to Eranga saying you've got tot do it and I had faith in him, England also played some great cricket, batting like that on a final day wicket. I had to keep changing the bowlers. We played some great cricket, a lot of hard work and dedication, our bowlers are quite inexperienced but they played so well. Mahela and Kumar contributed a hell of a lot in this series and the ODI series and this is a fitting send off. I've had a good six months with bat and ball and hopefully I can continue that into the future. I think this has cemented my captaincy but you have to keep performing."

Up come the England players to receive their medals and here's Alastair Cook: "Moeen played an outstanding innings, to get a hundred like that is amazing and bodes well for the future. He's a brave cricketer and the way he constructed that innings today, he didn't deserve to be on the losing side. For Jimmy to survive 80 minutes was a great effort but credit to Sri Lanka, they've just won the crucial moments. For eight days of this series we've probably had the better of it but we've lost the crucial moments and you can't let opportunities slip. Here, were didn't bowl as we would have liked to in the second innings. I thought Mahela's comments were harsh, we've won big series in the past and I think after today he would change his words. My own form is tough, I have to go back to basics, work hard and I've got 10 days to get prepared for India. If I keep losing form and matches I won't be asked to captain for much longer but I'm determined to make it right."

Presentation time. Dickie Bird is handing out the medals to the umpires first of all. Man of the Match for his outstanding second-innings hundred, and wickets, goes to Angelo Mathews. Player of the Series for England is Jimmy Anderson, perhaps a surprising choice. Anderson is very upset in the interview and can't finish his answer to Michael Atherton's first question. Very emotional indeed. Sri Lanka's Player of the series is also Mathews for his runs and leadership and handy work with the ball too.

For England, this is a complete disaster. Their new era under coach Peter Moores has began with an embarrassing defeat to a side they were widely tipped to beat comfortably. They looked set to do that in this match after five sessions but an awful second half has seen them lose the series. Today it was despite Moeen Ali's maiden Test match century, what an effort from him. Calm, cool and comfortable today, almost leading England to a battling draw. Plenty for Moeen to take from this match considering his wickets too earlier in the match suggesting what he could be capable of in the future. But little consolation really for England, whose captain Alastair Cook will now face a world of questions over his captaincy.

What a comeback in this match from Sri Lanka, they were staring down a huge first-innings deficit on Saturday before staging a fine comeback to limit England's lead to little over 100. But then, their batting in third innings, particularly that of their captain Angelo Mathews, was an outstanding effort to eventually set England 350 to win. The turnaround was complete with five wickets yesterday evening but then the game took another twist today, going right down to the wire.

So with the penultimate ball of the Test, Sri Lanka have won by 100 runs and pull off the most dramatic of victories to give them a 1-0 series victory which is their first multi-Test series win in England. Their players are ecstatic. For so long it looked as if Sri Lanka were going to win comfortably with just five wickets needed on the final day but they were made to fight tooth and nail but just in the nick of time they have pulled it off.

116.5
W
Eranga to Anderson, OUT, short ball, Anderson fends it off and loops a catch to backward square!!! Can you believe it! Eranga has pulled it off, a snorter that Anderson couldn't keep down for once and popped up a simple catch, what a disaster for Anderson after all that effort and what jubilation for Sri Lanka

JM Anderson c Herath b Eranga 0 (81m 55b 0x4 0x6) SR: 0.00

Huge cheers from the England fans with every block. Radeep: "Anderson must have created a record of sorts for having faced maximum balls without scoring." He has!

116.4
0
Eranga to Anderson, no run, fuller length around leg stump, Anderson forward and defends up the wicket
116.3
0
Eranga to Anderson, no run, back of a length, Anderson across to guide out on the off side again

Goes over the wicket...

Four ball for Sri Lanka...

116.2
0
Eranga to Anderson, no run, back of a length, angled out from just outside off to gully
116.1
0
Eranga to Anderson, no run, short right at the throat, Anderson right back knocking it down in front of short leg

So it comes down to James Anderson with six to face from Shaminda Eranga. A whole host of catchers around the bat...

END OF OVER:
116 | 1 Run | ENG: 249/9

  • Moeen Ali108 (281b)
  • James Anderson0 (50b)
  • Dhammika Prasad22-5-50-5
  • Rangana Herath42-16-59-3

Great effort from Prasad, will it be a match-winning performance?

115.6
0
Prasad to Ali, no run, full at the stumps, Moeen knocks it up the wicket

Still rising

5th

Alastair Cook has moved past Geoffrey Boycott on England's list of Test run-scorers. He is closing in on Kevin Pietersen

Leading by example

3/4

Angelo Mathews has scored three of his four Test centuries as captain

Exclusive club

4

Kumar Sangakkara becomes just the fourth player to score seven half-centuries (or more) in a row in Tests after Weekes, Flower and Chanderpaul

Sanga breaks new ground

300+

When he reached 13 in his second innings, Kumar Sangakkara became the first Sri Lanka batsman to score 300 runs in a Test series in England