PHOTO BY DAVID MUNDEN
With one eye on the forthcoming Ashes tour and the other on whining about Muttiah Muralitharan’s bowling action, England got a bloody nose in this oneoff Test, whose singular scheduling insulted the quality of the one-day world champions.
Few anticipated Sri Lanka’s triumph after England’s comeback win over South Africa. Even fewer saw it coming after England methodically compiled 445 having been put in by Arjuna Ranatunga on a dry, slow pitch. The Sri Lankan skipper “really should have known better”, wrote Christopher Martin-Jenkins from the Olympian heights of the Daily Telegraph. In Wisden, David Hopps described Graeme Hick’s century as “computerised, indeed colourless”.