Flintoff slaughters the Lankans

England vs Sri Lanka
Nottingham
Game One - Scorecard

Andy Flintoff gave a match-winning performance, guiding England to a 44-run victory over Sri Lanka in the opening match of the NatWest Tri-Series.

A blustery 28-ball 50 by Flintoff, together with veteran wicketkeeper-batsman Alec Stewart's unflappable half-century, helped England amass a mammoth 293 for 6. Sri Lanka could score only 249 for 9 in reply.

England innings:

After a humiliating two-nil defeat in the Test series, Sri Lanka turned up for the second leg of their English tour facing a new-look English one-day team at Trent Bridge - the world's third oldest major cricket ground, preceded by Lord's and Kolkata's Eden Gardens - hoping for a turnaround in their fortunes.

Essex skipper Ronnie Irani edged out Alex Tudor and played his first international game in five years while Michael Vaughan lost out to all-rounder Paul Collingwood, who played in all the one-day games this winter for England.

For Sri Lanka, middle-order batsman Naveed Nawaz returned to the side after a long gap and Ruwan Zoysa joined Chaminda Vaas to open the bowling.

Skipper Nasser Hussain won the toss and opted to bat in the day-night match. Sri Lanka coach Dave Whatmore's fears of batting second and struggling to adapt to artificial light from natural light midway through the innings came true.

Left-hand opener Nick Knight panned Nuwan Zoysa to the long-off fence and got the English innings flying. Looking to play Zoysa down the leg-side in the same over, Knight, with his feet stuck at the crease, was trapped in front for 20 as England slumped to 39 for 1.

Marcus Trescothick returned to the pavilion after a leading edge flew off his bat and Kumara Sangakkara, the Test keeper playing as a specialist batsman, held a difficult catch with ease, running towards the cover boundary.

England's most trustworthy pair skipper of Nasser Hussain and Graham Thorpe arrived at the wicket and consolidated the innings with a fifty-run partnership. Dilhara Fernando clipped the top of Hussain's stumps, and three balls later had Thorpe playing a nothing shot and dragged the ball back onto his stumps. Two wickets in the same Fernando over and England were in a world they knew.

Veteran wicket keeper Alec Stewart summoned all his experience and with Ronnie Irani shored up the England innings with a 95-run partnership in the period between the 20th and the 40th over - rotating the strike with minimum risk. A wicket for the Lankans at that stage would have spelled doom for the Englishmen.

Irani heaved off-spinner Russel Arnold to the safe hands of Mahela Jayawardene at the square leg boundary. 39 off 55 balls with a lone boundary to fine leg and the Essex skipper's was a job well done. The partnership had presented the perfect premise for Flintoff and Paul Collingwood to swing their bats around in the slog overs.

Stewart sliced Jayasuriya for four to bring up his 24th half-century off 67 balls and the entire English team, standing in the balcony of the dressing room, put their hands together for the man in the twilight of a remarkable career.

Flintoff then took matters in his own hand -- with Stewart struggling to play across the line -- swinging lustily at the pedestrian Lankan bowling attack, hampered by the absence of an injured Muralitharan and an out-of-form Chaminda Vaas.

Flintoff blitzed to a screaming half-century in 28 deliveries - the fastest by an Englishman ever -- and along with Stewart got 84 off 62 balls, sending the 15,500 sell-out crowd into raptures. 63 runs were plundered off the last five overs of the innings as England raced away to 293 in their fifty overs.

Flintoff's fluid innings exemplified the reason why he is regarded as a special kid and persevered with despite his injury lay-offs and the odd bad patch.

Lankan innings:

In the fifth over of the Lankan innings, Hussain, at short extra cover position, with a goalkeeper-like dive, arrested a screaming drive off skipper Jayasuriya's bat. Lanka lost their skipper and half the battle at 19-1.

England then had another breakthrough when Marvan Atapattu (47) - who looked menacing with every passing minute at the crease - drove at Flintoff. Irani, diving to his left at mid-off, held on to a sharp chance. (91 for 2)

With Kaluwitharana curbing his natural stroke-play, Mahela Jayawardene propelled the innings, pulling and driving with panache. Kaluwitharana joined in the festivities, thumping Ronnie Irani over the mid-wicket fence for a six as he registered his first half-century for 17 innings.

In the space of seven deliveries, Paul Collingwood ended Lanka's hopes of winning the first game of the tourney. Kalu flicked Collingwood to short mid-wicket, where Graham Thorpe caught the ball inches from the ground. Jayawardene missed the line of the ball off the last ball of Collingswood's next over and had his wickets rearranged. At 152 for 4, Lanka were still on par with England's score of 151 for 4 at the end of thirty overs.

Lanka's depth in batting was apparent as Sangakkara, who had scored 230 against Pakistan this March - the second highest ever by a keeper in Tests - and Russel Arnold were at the crease with four top-order batsmen back in the pavilion.

The duo knit a 50-run partnership off merely 54 deliveries even as the asking rate soared to nine an over.

Arnold was caught short of his crease while backing up, as Sangakkara struck a straight drive with Hoggard getting his fingertips to the ball on its way to the stumps. Flintoff had Sangakkara caught at mid-on and Upul Chandana top-edged Kirtley to Thorpe.

Despite the absence of Darren Gough and Andy Caddick, skipper Hussain maneuvered his greenhorn bowling attack wisely and kept building the pressure on the Lankans, who chased more than six an over for the major part of the innings.

Kirtley, returning from his exile, bowled with a lot of spunk and was on a hat-trick as the Lankan lower-order collapsed without the semblance of a fight.

But the match belonged to Flintoff, who was outstanding with the bat and ball, claiming three wickets to go with his afternoon blitzkrieg with the bat.