Sorry England flattened again

Andrew Strauss rows with officials as his side are bowled out for 193 by rampant sri lanka
Out and down: Jonathan Trott is the fall guy after being stumped and then accidentally knocked over by Prasanna Jayawardene
27 March 2012

Andrew Strauss confronted the umpires as England were bowled out for 193 here today, failing to end their run of miserable batting performances in Asian conditions.

After being dismissed for 26 when Sri Lanka chose to review an lbw decision, the England captain appeared to ask for an explanation from on-field officials Asad Rauf and Rod Tucker. Strauss was the third out as his team fell apart in just 46.4 overs, leaving Sri Lanka with a 125-run lead in the First Test.

Rauf had originally reprieved Strauss after he was struck on the pad while attempting to sweep left-arm spinner Rangana Herath but, after some debate, home skipper Mahela Jayawardene called for the assistance of TV umpire Bruce Oxenford.

The ball-tracking technology suggested the delivery would have gone on to hit the stumps and Strauss was condemned, but the opener was clearly unhappy with the chain of events and appeared to speak to both Tucker and Rauf before trudging to the pavilion.

Match referee Javagal Srinath could now decide to look into the matter and the list of possible punishments extends to Strauss being fined a proportion of his match fee.

The skipper’s mood will not have been improved by his side’s below-par batting. He, Alastair Cook and Jonathan Trott were out before lunch, and wickets fell regularly thereafter, a number of them to wreckless shots.

Only Ian Bell, who made 52, and Cook could say they were undone by genuinely good bowling. Herath finished with six for 74.

Jayawardene’s first-innings 180 was in a different class. He was last out when Sri Lanka were finally bowled out for 318 this morning, Jimmy Anderson taking five for 72. But Jayawardene scored only five second time around, falling to Graeme Swann as Sri Lanka slumped to 21 for three.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in