Cricket 2008: When India won on and off the field

Harbhajan Singh started 2008 by escaping a ban in an acrimonious racism row in Australia and finished it as one of the leading wicket-takers, helping India to back-to-back Test series wins over the Australians and English.

The feisty offspinner's Teflon-like ride mirrored India's season inside and outside the arena as cricket's commercial powerbroker flexed its considerable clout.

Just as the lucrative Indian Premier League and the numerous Twenty20 competitions that sprouted around it threatened to elevate the shortest form of the game to the highest standing in cricket, some tight Tests involving India, England, South Africa and Australia revived the five-day game.

Interest heightened when India's late successes over Australia and England, cricket's oldest powers, were sandwiched around terror attacks in Mumbai that killed 164 people and threatened to derail the game on the subcontinent.

The November attacks, in which a luxury hotel that frequently hosts international cricket teams was among the prime targets, sent the English squad packing for a week, caused the cancellation of the inaugural Champions League that was supposed to feature eight provincial teams from five countries and, inevitably, caused India's refusal to tour Pakistan next month.

The Indian government blamed Pakistan-based militants for the attacks.

So while India was able to lure England back this month for the Test series — after the English abandoned a limited-overs series they were losing 5-0 — with security assurances, it was not willing to reciprocate for neighboring Pakistan.

England was widely commended for returning to India, although former Pakistan captain Rashid Latif was outspoken in his criticism of both international and national administrators for what he thought were the double standards of encouraging tours to India while turning their backs on Pakistan due to safety fears.

But International Cricket Council president David Morgan said England's return, and it's subsequent six-wicket loss in the first Test in Chennai, continued "the feel-good factor around the longest form of the game".

Cricket "has probably never been stronger than it is right now with three viable and vibrant forms at international level, including the positive effect of Twenty20," Morgan said. "The Perth Test between Australia and South Africa has also produced some great cricket and (recent matches) have been a real reminder that Test cricket is the pinnacle of our sport with its unique ability to produce twists and turns and sustained drama."

Latif said India's status as the game's key market gave it the pulling power Pakistan lacked. The eight-nation Champions Trophy in Pakistan was postponed in September after five teams refused to tour.

"It's all about money and nothing else," Latif said. "If India didn't have the financial clout no team would bother to go there so soon after the Mumbai attacks."

Latif wasn't the only critic of India's cashed-up backers.

Sections of the media openly questioned who was running the sport when Harbhajan was let off a two-match ban on appeal in January after allegedly making a racist taunt against allrounder Andrew Symonds, the only black player on the Australian team.

That decision came amid Indian threats to boycott the remainder of the tour. The ICC also acquiesced to India's demands for veteran West Indies umpire Steve Bucknor to be removed from the series after making some incorrect decisions.

Harbhajan pleaded guilty to a lesser charge and was fined 50 percent of his match fee — he later served a five-match ODI ban for slapping a teammate in a domestic Twenty20 match.

Australia had won the disputed Sydney match to equal its world record of 16 consecutive Test wins and take a 2-0 lead in the four-match series, but lost the subsequent match in Perth and only narrowly held on to the series.

Symonds went to India in April as one of the highest-paid players in the inaugural IPL Twenty20 but was later dropped from the Australian lineup for going fishing instead of attending a team meeting in Darwin ahead of a limited-overs series against Bangladesh.

He said he felt let down by Cricket Australia's handling of the racism row and he missed the four-Test October tour to India which the home team won 2-0.

Harbhajan, who took 15 wickets in the series, ended with 63 Test wickets for the year, one behind South Africa paceman Dale Steyn as the most prolific wicket-taker to Christmas.

Over the course of India's last two series wins, Sachin Tendulkar became the leading runscorer of all time and Anil Kumble retired at No. 3 on the all-time Test wicket-takers list.

"We are working well as a unit... and we all enjoy the success of each other," said paceman Zaheer Khan, voted player of the series in the 1-0 win over England this week. "It's been a great year for Indian cricket."

Australia's position at No. 1 came under the most pressure in a decade with South Africa and India closing in.

The search for able replacements for legspinner Shane Warne and paceman Glenn McGrath — two of the leading wicket-takers of all time — has been slower than Australian selectors had hoped.

As it neared the end of a tumultuous year, a stuttering Australia bowling attack was unable to prevent resurgent South Africa chasing 414 to win last week's series-opening Test in Perth — the second-highest successful fourth-innings run chase in Test history.

It was South Africa's first Test victory in 14 years on Australian soil and put the hosts under enormous pressure in the series, having never won a three-Test series after losing the first match.

South Africa even had the chance to move to No. 1 in the rankings with a 3-0 series win in Australia, but it would need more history to achieve it. The Proteas have never won a series in Australia.

BCCI to come under tax net

The income tax department has come out with a circular that redefines the term "charitable purpose", that is likely to bring associations like Confederation of Indian Industry or Ficci and Board of Control for Cricket in India, one of the world's richest sports bodies, outside the purview of exemptions.

The circular, which was published on December 19, now says any entity that does business or trade in exchange for a fee or income cannot claim exemption from paying income tax.

Many organisations avoid paying taxes by taking advantage of the definition under Section 2 (15) of the Income Tax Act, which defined "the advancement of any other object of general public utility" as a "charitable purpose".

The government moved an amendment in March 2008 to plug this loophole by tightening the definition of what constitutes a charitable purpose. After nine months, the tax department has now come out with a definition that will exclude commercial activities undertaken by entities like BCCI and industry associations like Confederation of Indian Industry, to name a few, from claiming exemption.

The tax rate will be 30 per cent plus cess and surcharges as applicable.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes had, in fact, constituted a committee to examine the taxability of BCCI earlier this year.

BCCI, registered under Section 12 (A) of the Income Tax Act as a trust, was availing of an income-tax exemption under Section 11 by claiming to be a charitable organisation. It had said the promotion of cricket is a public utility.

BCCI, however, may find it difficult to continue as a tax-exempted entity, especially after it launched the money-spinning tournament Indian Premier League this year. It may be asked to pay taxes on income from commercial activities like IPL, sale of television rights, tickets and advertisements from financial year 2008-09.

In 2007-08, BCCI earned a total income of Rs 1,000.41 crore and a surplus of Rs 303.15 crore. This fiscal, the board is likely to earn Rs 200-300 crore less because the Pakistan tour has been cancelled, said a BCCI official. Niranjan Shah, secretary of BCCI, declined to comment saying he needed to take a look at the circular.

Similarly, organisations like CII, Assocham and Indian Medical Association will have to pay taxes on income earned from rendering services to non-members. For example, if a hall belonging to an industry association is rented out to non-association members, this income would now attract tax.

However, the CBDT has provided some leeway to charitable entities that may be undertaking some incidental commercial activity to support public good like relief to the poor or medical relief.

In the event of a dispute, the tax department has retained the right to determine whether an activity is commercial in nature or not, based on facts, the circular said.

How good is Haydos?

Far out in Kingaroy, Queensland's peanut-growing heartland, Gary Hayden used to rehearse leaving the ball. His young brother Matthew, to Gary's consternation, would almost never let a ball go unhammered, and he has done a lot of hammering and not much leaving ever since. The result is a batting average as bulging as his sun-browned forearms. Bigger than Victor Trumper, Bill Ponsford, Arthur Morris, Hanif Mohammad, Bob Simpson, Bill Lawry, Geoff Boycott, Sunil Gavaskar, Gordon Greenidge, Graham Gooch, Desmond Haynes. Bigger than nearly every opening batsman in history's daydreams. Bigger than 50. Fifty-one-point-three-four. It is a good average. "Poor Matthew Hayden looked as comfortable as a white man on an unescorted tour of a black township." So wroteAge sage Peter McFarline, gazing down on the slingshots and slitherers of Allan Donald and Fanie de Villiers, when Hayden played Test cricket for the first time. And it is McFarline's words, rather than 51.34, that sum up the man's batting right now, as he fronts up for the 102nd time, and for what any dark day soon could be the last time. Nearly three years skipped by after that hostile beginning at Johannesburg's Bullring. At last Hayden surfaced once more. Bill Lawry, in his second Test, had scraped out 130 at Lord's, battered black and blue on a pitch not merely green but sporting an unmistakable ridge at the Nursery End. Hayden, in his, got clobbered on the elbow and stuttered to 5. Fifth ball of the second innings, a Curtly Ambrose straight one, pitched on off stump and deviated not a centimetre. Instead of hammering it, Hayden yanked his bat up high and left it. The MCG laughed, and he was discarded soon after, for three more years. He returned not as Hayden, but Haydos. Feet a yard out of the crease, battleaxe at the ready, bottom sticking out, chest puffed up, a mound of muscle between breastbone and neck, covering his stumps like a sightscreen on tree trunks… With a pinch more imagination, team-mates might have nicknamed him Haydox. Hundreds piled up, against Indians, New Zealanders, South Africans. When he got to 100, he'd draw a cross in the air, then shoot for 200. Someone from the formerly critical press pack asked him what had changed. Hayden's first thought, as Greg Baum has observed, was to reply: "Only your mind." For how long he thought it, and whether he went close to actually saying it, no one knows. But the thought was, on reflection, a touch too hubristic. For one significant change, seldom remarked on, was that Hayden's earliest tormentors - Donald and de Villiers; Ambrose, Courtney Walsh and Ian Bishop - had all conked out. Shaun Pollock's zippiest days were behind him, Chris Cairns' too. The few lethal quicks still in circulation were playing on the same side as Hayden. More hundreds poured forth, against Pakistanis, Poms, West Indians, Zimbabweans - Zimbabweans especially. Haydox was unrammable. All those hours under the sun made his skin glow almost orange; when he took off his helmet, sweaty tufts of hair spiking out in every direction, it was as if Queensland's own Giant Pineapple was bestriding the crease. No critic now thought to query what had changed. But Hayden himself remembered his three seasons of county cricket, not long ago, when bowlers kept ducking balls into his pads and he kept slugging them through midwicket. Was that what had changed - had he converted a weakness into a strength? Or was it that Test bowlers were now bowling like county bowlers? Nineteen Test hundreds was his career's haystack coming up to the 2005 Ashes tour. A couple against India, in 2001, twinkled brightest, two fits of sweeping so majestic as to put Cinderella out of business. Another, his Boxing Day 102 against England, made hearts beat faster under blue singlets. When Craig White bowled to Hayden, spectators beyond the long-on fence jumped for their lives, twice. He was elegantly violent that day. None of these hundreds passed the classic test of greatness: a bewitching pace attack, a tricky pitch, a team in trouble. But that was surely to do with circumstances, not Hayden, and something an Ashes tour would surely rectify. He returned not as Hayden, but Haydos. Feet a yard out of the crease, battleaxe at the ready, bottom sticking out, chest puffed up, a mound of muscle between breastbone and neck, covering his stumps like a sightscreen on tree trunks England had Steve Harmison, Andrew Flintoff, Simon Jones and Matthew Hoggard, and for four Tests Hayden had the horrors. In the fifth Test he played an innings most curious. He edged and groped and miscued and scratched at imaginary scuff marks and edged some more. Australia needed desperately to win. But Hayden went off twice for bad light and was outscored by Justin Langer and draped 138 runs over three murk-affected days. And when the Test was over, the Ashes lost, the selectors let him stay in the team. The hundreds resumed, at the same rate as before, built on the same method too: one giant step forward, then one brutal swing. He made half the textbook look obsolete. Back-foot play? Why bother, mate? The bowlers once more had a happy malleability about them. The trends of the time seemed to suit him: helmets, dead pitches, few quicks, fewer swingers. The old West Indian awesome foursome was by now a clueless threesome. Dillons, Drakeses, Collinses, Lawsons, Blignauts, Ervines, Mahwires, Agarkars, Nehras and Zoysas abounded. Hayden hundreds abounded, as well. And then, three months ago, he encountered a bowler named Zaheer. Another named Ishant. Then Southee and Steyn and Ntini. And when critics now ask him what has changed in three months, it is possible he still thinks: "Only your mind." He never did play an innings like Bill Lawry's at the Battle of the Ridge in 1961. When we think of audacious openers, we picture Gavaskar perplexing irate West Indians under his skull cap and sunhat, Gooch clipping bouncers off his moustache, Hanif swaying and blocking for 16 hours while most others quailed, Trumper whistling up centuries before lunch on uncovered English mudheaps. It is safer perhaps not to put Hayden a rung above them. Safer simply to note that he has given us rich entertainment and hit many hundreds. To entertain and make hundreds in hard situations against great fast bowlers, you need to see those bowlers off sometimes. You need to know when to hammer, when to leave. Or else you get peanuts.

Sri Lanka Cricket chairman Ranatunga sacked

In a surprising development, Sri Lanka Cricket chairman Arjuna Ranatunga was on Tuesday sacked for not "cooperating with the company or the players", and the interim committee headed by him stands dissolved with immediate effect.

Minister of Sports and Public Recreation Gamini Lokuge dissolved the SLC interim committee and appointed the secretary to the Ministry of Sports and Public Recreation, S Liyanagama, as the "competent authority" until further notice, a statement from Sri Lanka Cricket said.

"Arjuna Ranatunga has not been cooperating with the company or the players. We tried to sort it out but could not and he has been removed," Lokuge said.

"My permanent secretary in the ministry Liyanagama will be the competent authority till further notice," he said.

Lokuge said the present arrangement was likely to continue for one or two weeks after which a new committee will be appointed either through elections or otherwise.

According to informed sources, Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa has invited Arjuna Ranatunga for a meeting.

SLC sources said Ranatunga and Lokuge have been having differences for some time. The nine-member interim committee, including SLC secretary K Mathivanan and former batting ace Arvinda D'Silva, was also dissolved.

Debutant Duminy lives the dream

JP Duminy: "It's something that definitely I will cherish for the rest of my life" © PA Photos

Test debuts don't come much more rewarding than the one JP Duminy experienced in Perth. He struck the winning runs in the second-highest chase of all time and with the same cover-driven three went to 50 not out, an invaluable innings that helped South Africa forget about their past heartbreaks against Australia. Duminy could have been forgiven for wondering what all the fuss was about.

At 24 and having never played an international of any format against Australia, Duminy was free of the memories of South Africa's previous failures. The significance of the triumph certainly hit home as the squad celebrated that night. Veterans like Jacques Kallis and Mark Boucher have spent more than a decade trying to get one up on these opponents, while many other great names have faded into retirement without tasting that success.

"A lot of the guys got text messages from guys that have been here and they sort of understand what this victory means to everyone," Duminy said. "I think we understand what it means to everyone back home and we're grateful for it. Hopefully we can pull off another victory."

But if Duminy didn't know the pain of losing to Australia he at least knew the disappointment of being a teenage fan of South Africa during some of their lowest moments. As a 15-year-old cricket nut, he watched on in horror as Allan Donald was run-out in the semi-final of the World Cup, leaving the match tied and sending Australia into the decider.

"I've lived through all those days of just near, nearby," Duminy said. "Definitely the World Cup in '99 [was the worst], especially with the run-out, I think I watched every ball of that game, so it was a bit painful."

Now Duminy is doing his part to help write a new chapter in South African cricket. The value of his innings at the WACA cannot be underestimated. When he came to the crease at the fall of the fourth wicket they still needed 111 and he was due to be followed by Boucher and then one of world cricket's less convincing lower orders.

He had also managed only one run in the first innings. Talk about pressure. But he was batting with AB de Villiers, a man he had grown up playing with in under-age representative teams, and rarely did Duminy look flustered as he calmly bunted away danger-balls, lofted the spinners with confidence down the ground, and cut with precision. He didn't look tense. He was.

"I just made sure that I didn't want to portray a sort of nervous, uncomfortable feeling out there," Duminy said. "I was definitely feeling the pressure but my main objective was just to soak up everything and take it ball by ball. Myself and AB spoke a lot in the middle about just facing it ball by ball."

When Duminy left the field the hugs from his team-mates were tighter than those afforded to de Villiers, whose century earned him the Man-of-the-Match award but whose calmness was less surprising as he was in his 47th Test. The captain Graeme Smith could not have been happier with Duminy's effort.

"It's incredible," Smith said after the match. "He's travelled with us for a period of time now, he's watched so many Test matches with us over the last year-and-a-half from the sidelines, probably gaining a bit of experience, seeing what it's all about. He's played his fair share of one-day games now so he's had a taste of it.

"As I said to him now in terms of the pressure he faced today, he's not going to get any worse probably ever in his Test career so he played superbly. A guy at this stage of his career, an innings like that can only really do wonders for him as a person."

His opportunity arrived only because Ashwell Prince hurt his thumb and while Prince is no certainty for the Boxing Day Test, Duminy is resigned to losing his spot whenever the more experienced man is ready. His position may vanish but nothing can erase the mark he left on Test cricket in his debut match.

A lowdown on fourth-innings run-chases

 Of late, sides have achieved targets batting last far more often than they used to

	India's win in Chennai was the highest successful run-chase in the country, beating the earlier record by more than 100 runs © AFP

Over the last two months Test cricket has witnessed two stirring fourth-innings run-chases: in October in Chittagong, New Zealand overcame a first-innings deficit of 74 and Bangladesh's spin attack to chase down a victory target of 317 with three wickets in hand. The opposition admittedly wasn't of the highest quality, but it was a huge achievement for New Zealand, considering their flaky batting line-up - they scored only 171 in their first innings - and that Bangladesh's spinners were bowling in familiar home conditions. By far the more high-profile chase, though, was India's 387 against a spirited England team in Chennai, after falling behind by 75 in the first innings.

In 1898 Tests, only 24 times have teams chased in excess of 300 to win, and two of those chases happened within the last couple of months. It's a phenomenon that is on the rise: since 2000, this feat has been performed eight times, the highest in a single decade; it happened six times in the 1990s, and just once in the 1980s, when Gordon Greenidge's sensational double-century helped West Indies chase down 344 for the loss of just one wicket at Lord's.

Perhaps it's because pitches today are better than they used to be in the past, or perhaps Test cricket progresses at such a frenetic pace these days that teams play their fourth innings well before the final day, when the pitch is usually at its most unpredictable. The reasons could be many, but the result has been several exciting and successful run-chases, and records being rewritten. India's 387 is by far the biggest target ever chased down in the fourth innings in India: it beat the earlier record, West Indies' 276 in 1987, by more than 100 runs, and is only the fifth instance of a successful chase of more than 200 in India.

As the table below indicates, the 2000s have been the best years for run-chases: of the 66 times 200-plus targets have been achieved since 1970, 31 have been since 2000. This isn't only due to the increased frequency of matches this decade. If you define the relevant games as decisive fourth-innings matches that had teams chasing between 200 and 420, or draws where teams had to bat at least 80 overs to save the Test, the win percentage in the 1970s was a meagre 14.29; in the 2000s it has doubled to 28.44. In the 1990s there were 53 losses in such games to only 15 wins; in the current decade the losses have only gone up by one while the wins have doubled.

Fourth-innings performances over the decades

Decade	Wins (target>=200,<=420)	Losses (target >=200,<=420)	Draw (>=480 balls)	Total games	Win %
1970s	9	34	20	63	14.29
1980s	11	24	16	51	21.57
1990s	15	53	23	91	16.48
2000s	31	54	24	109	28.44

Breaking down the numbers in the 2000s, it's clear that England and South Africa are the best venues for these run-chases: each of those countries has witnessed six successful chases in excess of 200 this decade. Among the six in England, the home team have been the winners on five occasions, including the famous chase against Australia when Mark Butcher led them to 315 for 4, the highest of the lot. New Zealand have been on the receiving end thrice, while South Africa are the only overseas team in the list, thanks to their excellent chase of 283 at Edgbaston earlier this year. The South Africans aren't as dominant in their own list of six, featuring only thrice, including the superb win in Durban against Australia in 2002.

Sri Lanka and West Indies, on the other hand, are the worst venues for these run-chases, with nine losses in each. Sri Lanka have been at the receiving end on four of those nine instances, including one at Galle when they were bowled out in just 45.2 overs against Australia. On five occasions the team losing has been dismissed for less than 200. West Indies have fared even worse, losing seven out of nine times.

Host-country-wise fourth-innings results since 2000

Host country	Wins (target>=200,<=420)	Losses (target>=200,<=420)	Draw (>=480 balls)
Australia	2	7	3
Bangladesh	3	1	1
England	6	8	3
India	2	4	2
New Zealand	3	4	2
Pakistan	3	2	2
Sharjah	0	1	0
South Africa	6	7	3
Sri Lanka	2	9	4
West Indies	4	9	3
Zimbabwe	0	2	1

A team-wise list also reveals that England and South Africa have been the most successful, winning six times each in these chases. The interesting number, though, is in the losses column for West Indies: they lead the way comfortably with 13 defeats, including seven at home, three each in Kingston and Port-of-Spain. Out of those 13 losses, seven times they were bowled out in less than 75 overs, and an equal number of occasions for less than 200.

Team-wise fourth-innings results since 2000

Team	Wins (target>=200,<=420)	Losses (target>=200,<=420)	Draws (>=480 balls played)
Australia	5	4	3
Bangladesh	0	1	1
England	6	7	3
India	4	5	4
New Zealand	1	3	2
Pakistan	3	4	3
South Africa	6	8	3
Sri Lanka	2	5	1
West Indies	4	13	4
Zimbabwe	0	3	0

S Rajesh is stats editor of Cricinfo

Dhoni and his debut in Bollywood

Being a stylish icon on cricket field, Indian Captain M.S. Dhoni is cheerfully gearing up to sway in Bollywood. Yup! Some of his closest sources have revealed he would be a part in David Dhawan's 'Hook Ya Crook'. The film produced by UTV Motion Pictures is slated to start rolling from second week of Jan, 2009. With John Abraham in lead role, Siddarth who shot to fame with Rang De Basanti in 2006 has been roped in for other lead. Perhaps, none of the sources from UTV has let its tongue regarding Dhoni's role in this film. As of now, discussions are going between Dhoni and Producers and things would be finalized soon. Sumptuously making high waves in small screens, Mahi is all set making directorial debut with 'Hook Ya Crook'. Rensil D'Silva who won laurels for his stunning script of Rang De Basanthi is back crafting a colossal tale. Buzzes are that it would Genelia D'Souza donning female lead while rest of the casts is yet to be finalized.

Srilanka clinches a two wicket thriller

Fernando holds his nerve to seal a thriller

Sri Lanka's slick professionalism in the field, and Dilhara Fernando's composure in the final over, earned them a nail biting win over England in Antigua. Though Sri Lanka only compiled a relatively modest 236, England's middle-order fell away meekly before a thrilling fightback from Paul Nixon and Ravi Bopara dragged down the required total to just 12 from the final over. It was two too many.

Fernando was thrown the ball for the final over, but his second ball was paddled - quite brilliantly - over short fine-leg by Bopara for four. Seven needed from four balls, but Bopara's crunching drive couldn't pierce the covers, picking up just two - enough, though, to register his first one-day fifty. A single off the fourth ball; another off the fifth but, with three needed from the final ball, Fernando cleaned up Bopara to end a memorable match. That England even got into a winning position owed much to Nixon, whose crafty 42 at a run-a-ball took them out of the woods and into the clearing.

Just an hour or so earlier, the match was England's for the taking, however. Ian Bell and Kevin Pietersen were cruising along in their commanding third-wicket stand of 90, regaining the momentum after losing Michael Vaughan and Ed Joyce cheaply. Pietersen, inevitably, took the game by the scruff, asserting his authority on Lasith Malinga with a front-footed pull and a fierce slap through the covers. Once he had lofted Chaminda Vaas for an effortless six, Pietersen was in complete control of proceedings.

Bell was less certain - although, next to Pietersen, most batsmen are. But he too found his fluency, clipping two fours off one Vaas over, one behind square and the other threaded through covers, before Sanath Jayasuriya affected a cruel run out. Pietersen pushed it back to the bowler who deflected it via his fingertips onto the non-striker's stumps. Bell appeared to ground his bat but replays showed it had lifted by a few millimetres. It was a stroke of fortune Sri Lanka needed, and they capitalised brilliantly.

Pietersen brought up an uncharacteristically sedate 74-ball 50 - before the magician, Muttiah Muralitharan, was brought on. His spell began quietly before he tossed down a doosra to Pietersen who, trying to work it to leg, got a leading edge ballooning it back to Murali. It was his 28th caught-and-bowled and with Pietersen departing at 126 for 4, England's hopes sunk. Andrew Flintoff scratched around for a couple of overs, skying Fernando's slower ball to Malinga at mid-on. And Collingwood ended what little hope of victory England had when he was trapped in front two balls later.

Enter Nixon, reverse-sweeping with furious intent, if not great success initially, nurdling singles with relative ease. An old head needed young legs though - and Nixon was joined by Bopara, whose maturity and proficiency has been a distinct, rare highlight for England so far this tournament. 67 balls later, the young-old combination had a 50-run partnership to their name. And without ever attacking the target with real intent, they chipped away to bring the required runs down to 32 from three overs.

Nixon then unfurled the shot of the day, a remarkable reverse-swept six off Muralitharan to raise hopes of unlikely victory. In the end, Sri Lanka's discipline in the middle overs proved the decisive factor.

England were no less impressive in the field earlier in the day, capping a one-day match in which, for once, the bowlers shone. The big fear was whether the nightmares of last summer - when Sri Lanka drubbed them 5-0, saving particular scorn for Sajid Mahmood - would haunt them. It didn't. James Anderson and Mahmood, the two opening bowlers in an unchanged lineup, were tight, controlled and impressively accurate in their opening spells.

With Jayasuriya falling cheaply, Sri Lanka's middle-order was opened up but Mahela Jayawardene's solid fifty from 61 balls provided much-needed fluency to an innings lacking momentum. How crucial it was in the end, too. His class with the bat and growing maturity as a leader - not to mention calmness under pressure - is a very reassuring sign for Sri Lanka's future and particularly for this tournament.

Sri Lanka take the two points, and were deserved victors, but England can take pride and encouragement from a far improved performance. They still lost, though, and their next game against Australia now takes on an even greater significance.