The third day of England’s last practice game before the First Test Match in Galle was a weary affair

Charlie Austin17-Feb-2001
Craig White: At the top of his game
Photo © CricInfo
The third day of England’s last practice game before the First Test Match in Galle was a weary affair. The English displayed admirable tenacity, but not a great deal of adventure as they remorsefully plodded and padded their way through the day.As a smattering of locals stood patiently by in the picturesque Uyanwatte Stadium, the English batsmen added 244 runs in 97 overs and finished the day on 418 for seven when bad light stopped play. They can now roll out the bowlers tomorrow for one final trundle.England, of course, are under no obligation to make this a festive affair. The real business is now just five days away and the time spent playing the Sri Lanka board President’s XI spinners, one of whom is likely to partner Muttiah Muralitharan in Galle, was surely valuable.Alec Stewart, for one, would be glad to have spent his three hours at the crease during the first half of the day. He disappointed in Pakistan with scores of 3, 27*, 13, 22, 29 and 5 in the Test series and is the only top order batsman to have not passed fifty so far in Sri Lanka.However, he made good use of his final innings before the Test and, although he lacked fluency in his 40 runs and had to wait 133 balls for his solitary boundary, his feet were moving with greater conviction when a leg spinner from Malinga Bandara finally bowled him.It was Craig White, however, who dominated the day. He came into bat after Michael Vaughan was well caught by Hashan Tillakaratne at silly point, off Muthumudalige Pushpakumara’s first ball, to leave England 247 for five.Stewart and White then added 63 for the sixth wicket, 39 of which were made by the confident White. It was the highlight of the day as White bristled with positive intent during the early part of his innings and took the attack to the Sri Lankan spinners. Using his feet he swung Pushpakumara over long on for six and lofted Bandara over extra cover for four.Like he had done in Colombo last week, where he scored 63 and 39, he was, however, heavily dependent upon the sweep shot and when the Sri Lankan’s countered this with a defensive leg side field, he struggled to score runs with the same freedom.Nevertheless, he pushed on, refusing to be forced into throwing away his wicket by the negativity of the spinners. At the close of play he remained unbeaten on 85 from 227 deliveries.Following Stewart’s dismissal he added 32 runs with Ashley Giles, who showed little discomfort from the stiffness in his Achilles tendon during his 67-minute stay at the crease, and then an unbeaten 76 for the eighth wicket with Robert Croft, who had scored 30 not out by the close.The Sri Lankan’s waited an unbelievable 153 overs before taking the second new ball. When they did the opening fast bowler, Ruchira Perera, was champing at the bit and became involved in an altercation with Craig White. The two players exchanged words after a bouncer from Perera and umpire TH Wijewardane was forced to intervene.Earlier in the day Dinusha Fernando had bowled Michael Atherton for the third time of the tour, this time by a delivery that nipped back through bat and pad. Graham Thorpe had completed an industrious half-century, his first of the tour, before being caught and bowled by Bandaratilleke.Afterwards, Atherton was quick to pay tribute to Craig White’s worth to the England team: “He’s probably at the top of his game at the moment,” Atherton said. “You can see from the way he comes in and takes on the spinners from the word go, and is batting like a man who is high on confidence and feeling good about his game.”He feels a key part of the team which he is because he is in the linchpin position at number seven and the third seamer.”