Sri Lanka show signs of fight as England put one hand on the Moose Cup

WE LIVE in the strangest of times, so there is perhaps nothing particularly startling about the fact that the official title of this Test series is “The Moose Cup powered by Daraz”.
Good return: Yorkshire's England spinner Dom Bess claimed match figures of 8-130 as the tourists closed in on victory int he first Test against Sri Lanka. Picture: Dan Mullan/NMC Pool/PA Wire.Good return: Yorkshire's England spinner Dom Bess claimed match figures of 8-130 as the tourists closed in on victory int he first Test against Sri Lanka. Picture: Dan Mullan/NMC Pool/PA Wire.
Good return: Yorkshire's England spinner Dom Bess claimed match figures of 8-130 as the tourists closed in on victory int he first Test against Sri Lanka. Picture: Dan Mullan/NMC Pool/PA Wire.

Eh?

Quite.

The Moose Cup – fittingly a golden cricket ball on a three-foot plinth from which a pair of antlers protrudes – maintains cricket’s long tradition of curious trophies.

Battling back: Sri Lanka opener Lahiru Thirimanne scored 11 in his side's second innings - only his second Test century in eight years. Picture: Nigel French/PA Wire.Battling back: Sri Lanka opener Lahiru Thirimanne scored 11 in his side's second innings - only his second Test century in eight years. Picture: Nigel French/PA Wire.
Battling back: Sri Lanka opener Lahiru Thirimanne scored 11 in his side's second innings - only his second Test century in eight years. Picture: Nigel French/PA Wire.

Who can forget the Oye Hoye Trophy, for example, for which Pakistan and New Zealand locked horns in 2018? Or what about the TUC Cup between Pakistan and Australia in the same year, when the sides competed for a giant biscuit on top of three stumps?

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For the record, “Moose” is a clothing company in Sri Lanka and “Daraz” an online marketplace and logistics company, but I’m sure you knew that already.

It is certainly fair to say that “The Moose Cup powered by Daraz” does not quite carry the same gravitas as the Border-Gavaskar Trophy (Australia versus India), or the Basil D’Oliveira Trophy (England versus South Africa), named after some of the greatest to have played the game.

Its importance to England and Sri Lanka, of course, cannot be understated, and the word “moose” has seemed appropriate at times given the harum-scarum nature of this match.

First it was Sri Lanka who were reckless and impetuous in succumbing for 135 inside 47 overs on day one; then it seemed as if England had caught the bug in tumbling to 14-3 in their second innings on day four, chasing 74 for victory, before closing on 38-3.

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Had Sri Lanka run out Jonny Bairstow one ball after they had run out Joe Root, the captain colliding with the bowler, Dilruwan Perara, after Bairstow pushed into the offside, England would have been 14-4 and in some difficulty given the extended nature of their tail in this game.

As it was, a shy at the stumps flew wide, and Bairstow and debutant Dan Lawrence held firm, steering their side to within 36 of their target before bad light ended play as it so often does in that part of the world.

That England had to come back this morning, though, in an effort to finish the job was tribute to the way in which Sri Lanka rallied after their first day collapse.

The hosts scored 359 in their second innings, Lahiru Thirimanne, the left-handed opener, top-scoring with 111 – only his second Test hundred, and his first for eight years. Angelo Mathews made 71 and received good support from the lower order.

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England’s spinners are a work in progress, but Yorkshire’s Dom Bess followed his 5-30 in the first innings with 3-100, and his former Somerset team-mate Jack Leach took 5-122 yesterday.

Leach has played little cricket recently and suffered poor health; days such as this will do him much good.

A hat-tip, too, to Stuart Broad, who returned the remarkable analysis of 17-11-14-0 in conditions singularly unsuited to pace bowling.

It was the type of economy rate that one might expect from a spinner in Sri Lanka, not a 34-year-old fast-medium bowler who has sent down more than 29,000 deliveries in five-day cricket.

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Sam Curran chipped in with the other two wickets, a much younger pace bowling trier, and Root sent down 11 tidy overs. Still, Sri Lanka showed that they are more than the sum of the pitiful parts they displayed on day one, and they will at least take something into the second and final Test, starting on Friday at the same ground, come what may.

At one stage, it looked as if England’s target would be into three figures but for a decisive passage of play before tea.

Sri Lanka had just gained the lead with five wickets left when Niroshan Dickwella, the wicketkeeper, tried to run Bess down to third-man and was caught behind, a nothing shot undoing good work.

In the next over, Dasan Shanaka was bowled by Leach, the batsman yorking himself, leaving the hosts 302-7 - effectively 16-7.

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Mathews and Perera added useful runs, but not so many that England were left with what might be called a “nuisance target”. That said, it started to look like one when the departures of openers Dom Sibley and Zak Crawley left England 12-2.

Sibley left a straight one from Lasith Embuldeniya, the highly impressive left-arm spinner, and Crawley tried to drive the same bowler and was caught in the gully. Neither batsman made double figures in the match – a worrying statistic with a tour to India to come.

Perhaps a lack of preparation time has had something to do with the cricket on both sides, reflecting a certain collective rustiness interspered with periods of fine play.

Consequently, “The Moose Cup powered by Daraz” has been nothing if not entertaining thus far.

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Going into day five, England had one hand on its coveted antlers.

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