When Jayasuriya, Aravinda and Murali ruffled England’s feathers

Muttiah Muralitharan returns after 

taking 16 wickets at the Oval in 1998

Sanath Jayasuriya cuts on his way to a double century

• Sri Lanka’s victory at the Oval paved way for 3-Test series

Of the nine tours Sri Lanka has made prior to the present one to England, they have played a Test match at the Oval in London only just once in 1998.

The current tour affords them the second opportunity to showcase their talent at this venue when the third and final Test commences on Friday. 

That one-off Test was a memorable one for Sri Lanka in many ways. It was the first time that Sri Lanka won a Test match in England and they did it convincingly by ten wickets with several individual performances contributing to that win.

Notably so was the double century scored by Sanath Jayasuriya, the current interim coach of the team and off-spinner Muttiah Muralitharan’s 16-wicket match haul. England made a substantial first innings score of 445 courtesy centuries from Graeme Hick and John Crawley, a score good enough to put pressure on any opposition.

But Sri Lanka’s reply was stunning. Buoyed by Jayasuriya’s double hundred (213 off 278 balls, 33 fours, 1 six) and Aravinda de Silva’s classical knock of 152 off 292 balls (17 fours), Sri Lanka took a first innings lead of 146 scoring 591, which put England under tremendous pressure.

England’s second innings collapsed like a pack of cards as Muralitharan with seven wickets in the first innings (7/155), came within a wicket of capturing all ten wickets in an innings (9/65) in the second as the hosts folded up for 181. Muralitharan was denied ten wickets when substitute fielder Upul Chandana (the present fielding coach) ran out the England Captain Alec Stewart for 32. Sri Lanka required 36 for victory and they knocked them off in five overs with Jayasuriya scoring 24 of them.

The win certainly changed the thinking of the England Cricket Board in granting Sri Lanka just the one-off Test in each of their previous tours, and made way for the start of a three-Test series when they next toured England in 2002. – (ST)