Ever so close …

There was more than a faint glimmer of hope for England fans when the key wicket of dangerman Sanath Jayasuriya was captured early by Sajid Mahmood, who then went on to turn in a career-best ODI performance in Wednesdayâ?(tm)s match between England and Sri Lanka. England had a fair bit to gain where this match was concerned, as a win would have been a significant boost to their semi-final prospects, given that they still have to face tournament favourites Australia and South Africa. Similarly, for Sri Lanka, this was a game they could ill-afford to lose.

Although team England have been criticised most often this winter for lacking a plan, from the moment they won the toss and chose to field it was clear that today a well-focussed plan was firmly in place, marshalled by Vaughan’s impressive captaincy. It is frequently said that certain fielders – e.g. Paul Collingwood, Andrew Symonds – will save you 20 runs in the field, but I think the same can also be said of Vaughan’s leadership.

Some amazingly tight bowling by Anderson, effectively supported by Mahmood who for once seemed able to temper his aggression with control, as well as some late wickets by Freddie Flintoff, effectively held Sri Lanka down to 235, all out. They, and many commentators, thought this total 15-20 runs too few on a good pitch.

With the end of the break, however, it became doubtful whether Englandâ?(tm)s efforts at the crease could match that of their bowlers in the previous innings. After the opening partnership was rather cheaply lost (and unfortunately, given the dubious nature of Vaughan’s dismissal), Kevin Pietersen and Ian Bell steadied the match in Englandâ?(tm)s favour.

However, Bell once again managed to find a bizarre way of getting dismissed when well set. Undoubtedly, he was unlucky, his bat bouncing in the air for a millisecond, just as the stumps were broken, having already been grounded. But his misfortune here only served to throw into sharp relief his frequent failure on other occasions to go on to make a match-defining score after doing all the hard of work of scoring the first 30-40 runs. Typically, a mini-collapse then ensued.

All seemed lost at this point, but then a quite brilliant partnership between Paul Nixon and Ravi Bopara took England within only a few runs of eclipsing Sri Lankaâ?(tm)s total. Excellent bowling from Malinga, however, broke this with the fall of Nixonâ?(tm)s wicket, leaving Bopara on strike needing three runs from one ball, only to be bowled by Fernando.

Itâ?(tm)s quite possible England could have won; thatâ?(tm)s part of the beauty of cricket. No matter what the predictions, no matter what the statistics, no matter who the favoured team happens to be, the impossible is always possible within any match. Even more so, after working so hard in the field, they should have won. But those last three runs must be weighing heavily on Boparaâ?(tm)s mind right now, and sadly, itâ?(tm)s those three runs that he will probably remember longer than his fine efforts to claw back a game that had seemed dead and buried when he came to the crease.

Bookmark this on Delicious