England V Sri Lanka 13th October 5th ODI

After the lord Mayors show, England missed an opportunity to strike a psychological blow before the Test Matches start in December (and to go up to 4th in the one day rankings).

As has been the norm in all the matches, the bowlers were once again on top. A relatively inexperienced England attack has been superb and surely this bodes well for the future. Sidebottom and Anderson look like international bowlers and Swann has been a revelation (showing up his wilderness years under Duncan Fletcher) Chris Broad is not the finished article yet but will undoubtedly go on to be a very good cricketer and is surely a better bet than Tremlett and Plunkett.

The wicketkeeper is still a problem position for England although Mustard deserves a second chance, he will score runs on good wickets and is not afraid to attack the bowlers.

England batsmen have been found wanting on this tour due in main to slow and deceiving pitches, Ian Bells form was as poor as he was good in the last series against India but he should also be a regular for many years to come.

Both Collingwood and Pieterson struggled but made vital contributions in individual matches when needed. Shah had one excellent innings but gave away his wicket too easily in others and poor old Ravi Bopara seemed to be stuck in the old Mark Ramprakash mode as he usually ended up with the tail enders.

As for Monty, the future for him in one dayers is cloudy and maybe in the new age of cricket, he will remain a very good test bowler without playing limited overs matches.

All in all and putting everything into context, this was England's first one day series victory on the sub continent for 20 years against the the team who finished second in the recent World Cup.

Praise must be heaped on the coaching staff and hopefully England can go on from here and improve as a limited overs outfit.

England V Sri Lanka 10th October 4th ODI

Unfortunately only caught the back end of this game due to work commitments (boring) but it was great to witness another England Victory. Once again it seemed the bowlers were excellent (nice to see Anderson getting some wickets).
Cook made some vital runs and Pieterson steered the ship home.

After the 20/20 tournament, this has been a completely different type of one day cricket and England have adapted well. Although its been a low scoring series, it has been entertaining watching the batsmen try to come to grips with unusual pitches and conditions.

What England should do now is keep the same side and go for the jugular on Saturday, no compromises, this may just shake the Sri Lankans up for the test series.

England v Sri Lanka October 7th 2007 3rd ODI

Extremely hard fought victory in a war of attrition.

A pretty sub standard one day pitch served for England's 3rd one day match in the series.

Losing the toss could have spelled the death knell for England but after a few breaks for rain an excellent bowling and fielding display limited the Sri Lankans to what seemed to be an easy target,165 to win.

Swann was superb and well backed up by Sidebottom and Broad.

England innings started badly and continued to fall away, Cook, Pieterson and Bell all failed again and Mustard was unlucky with his dismissal. Shah and Collingwood took England into safer waters until both also were out along with Bopara.

It was once again down to the extremely calm Stuart Broad to steer England home with an extremely mature knock.

Put into context, this was an excellent victory, England won against the toss, they have also won two games in a row now in Sri Lanka (Having only won one in their entire history before this tour), also most of Englands batsmen haven`t actually performed yet so hopefully theres still a little bit left in the locker.

England V Sri Lanka October 4th 2007 2nd ODI

Once again I kept up with the cricket via the BBC website (due to the fact I was at work again). As the game unfolded and the English batsmen struggled, my thoughts drifted back to the opening game and the fact that England struggled under the lights, surely a score of 220+ would pose more than a few problems for the Sri Lankan batsmen and so it proved.

Shah and Collywood looked capable of taking England to such a score and Swann provided an excellent knock towards the end of the innings.

Shahs innings was almost majestic on the slow pitch and he paced it to perfection.

The game then became a role-reversal of Mondays game as the England bowlers skittled the Sri Lankan team out for 169 with all the bowlers looking impressive.

So a welcome victory for Englands beleaguered one day side.

A few points to note from the game, Pieterson definitely looks out of sorts and I have seen some comments on the net intent on dropping him, did the Aussies drop Hayden, Ponting or Gilchrist when they were struggling for runs, class always comes good in the end.

Winning the toss is critical in these day night games, I think you need to produce something special to win after losing the spin of the coin.

You do need to put some things in context, this was only England's second ever one day victory in Sri Lanka and Shahs knock the best ever by an England batsman so a bit of history was made.

Bring on the next game.