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Atapattu's double century sets up Sri Lankan declaration

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February 24, 2001 

Another sweltering day, not just for the players, but also for the disgruntled BBC broadcasters, who had been barred from entering the ground this morning and forced to cover the game from the crumbling ramparts of the old Dutch Fort. They, at least, were allowed to return to the relative cool of the Press Box at lunch, as England were forced to endure another five and-a-half hours fielding in temperatures that soared to 116 degrees Fahrenheit

Although the Sri Lankan band created a relentless cacophony of noise and the pink-faced English supporters occasionally roused themselves from their dehydrated delirium for a brief rendition of "Engerlund, Engerlund," it was not a scintillating day of Test cricket. Sri Lanka's batsmen were forced to graft for every run and once again displayed admirable patience as they piled up 470 for five.

They then declared for an eight over burst against England's foot-weary openers and Sanath Jayasuriya wasted to no time before he unveiled the key to the future course of this match: Muttiah Muralitharan. He opened the bowling, but failed to break through, as the England openers punished some overly eager bowling and ended the day on 27 without loss.

Sri Lanka were guided to their final score of 470 by a marathon double century from Marvan Atapattu, the fourth in his 42 Test career and the third slowest in the history of Test cricket, after Brendon Kuruppu (777mins) and Gary Kirsten (741mins). He reached his double century after 677 minutes of painstaking concentration and 530 balls.

Dav Whatmore praised the efforts of Atapattu afterwards: "Marvan displayed tremendous determination, patience and concentration. The fact he refused to play the pull shot despite so many short balls just reflects his fantastic mental attitude."

Atapattu is a strong Buddhist and thus should know a thing or two about patience, but even he must have been mentally tested by England's tiresome tactics. Nasser Hussain gave up getting wickets in a conventional manner today and seemingly instructed his bowlers to either pound the centre of the wicket or spear the ball into the batsmen's pads. It was thus no surprise that two out of the three wickets to fall were from run outs.

Darren Gough, the fast spearhead of England's brave new world, jettisoned his normal quest for speed in favour of 70mph off-cutters with six men on the leg side. Craig White, too, bowled his slow off-cutter with gay abandon and Andrew Caddick preferred to bowl short with monotonous frequency.

Hussain's tactics may not have provided for pretty cricket, but it did make life difficult for the Sri Lankans, whom Darren Gough admitted afterwards could have scored more: "They never got away from us and could easily have scored another hundred or so.

"The conditions have to be up there with the worst that I have bowled in. We knew from the first game in Sri Lanka that the wickets were not going to be responsive. At least in Pakistan though the ball skidded on, here it just sat up and came through slowly. That being the case we had to try and mix it up," he explained afterwards.

Atapattu was given tremendous support in the morning by Aravinda de Silva and the pair added 230 for the third wicket. The veteran batsman has been in and out of the side in the last year and had failed to score a half-century in his previous 12 innings. He, however, repaid the faith shown in him by Sanath Jayasuriya and the Sri Lankan selectors, with a surprisingly watchful 106 off 243 balls, his 19th Test century.

Although he had been dropped twice in his innings, once last night when he had made 20 and again today by Alec Stewart down the leg side, when he had made 97, a run out always appeared his most likely form of dismissal. And so it was, when on the stroke of the afternoon drinks break, he was caught ball watching and failed to respond to Atapattu's call for a simple single.

Mahela Jayawardene, who had waited for five hours with his pads on, raised the tempo after the dismissal of de Silva. He made the most of being dropped by a tumbling Gough at mid-off right at the start of his innings and attacked the English spinners, hitting Giles for a straight six and sweeping Croft for another two overs later. When the spinners bowled outside his legs he responded by reverse sweeping.

He too was eventually run out thanks to some impressive football skills from Graham Thorpe, who, betraying his youthful promise representing English Schoolboys and earning the offer of a trial at Brentford, charged in from cover and shot directly on to the stumps from five yards. Jayawardene made 61 from 94 balls.

Sri Lanka then tried to grab some quick runs before the declaration by promoting Chaminda Vaas, as Marvan Atapattu crawled towards his double century, which he eventually reached in the 168th over of the innings. He was somewhat fortunate to have scored it after Stewart missed a stumping chance and Caddick spilled a caught and bowled chance when he had made 177.

Speaking afterwards, Atapattu was characteristically modest about his performance: "I just tried to stay and accumulate runs as I am not a big hitter of the ball like the others. The English made it really difficult for us to score freely because of the line they bowled."

He warned about Sri Lanka being complacent: "We did not bowl that well tonight. I think we were a little over eager and need to tighten up tomorrow. We can't take England lightly, they have shown in Pakistan that they are a tough side to bowl out."

Source: CricInfo