After an entire winter of collapsing in a heap as soon as they saw the finish line, England finally got over it after perhaps their finest team performance since the Ashes.
For the tourists it’s the final stage of a long (long) summer, for the hosts the beginning of hopefully yet another new dawn for West Indian cricket. Despite a seeming gulf in class between the two combatants, it promises to be a gripping encounter. 51allout investigates the impending Frank Worrell Trophy series between West Indies and Australia.
A day of genuine old-fashioned attritional Test cricket in which almost nothing happened, gripping us for the full 90 overs. Graeme Swann’s double strike in the penultimate over was just reward for not quite getting around to the washing up for eight hours.
Kevin Pietersen’s masterclass fires England into a dominant position.
Whoever kept England’s proper batsmen hidden away for the whole winter is a bastard.
Jimmy Anderson destroyed the Sri Lankan top order before Mahela Jayawardene rescued his side with a beautifully crafted century… Haven’t we seen this somewhere before?
Four Tests down and four losses in the bank. Can England complete one of the great winters or will they mess that up as well?
A much more determined batting performance by England put them within sight of victory before the lower order crumbled into the Galle dust and handed Sri Lanka a famous triumph.
After England dragged themselves back into the game, Sri Lanka’s tail wagged furiously for the second time in the match to put the home side into an almost unassailable position.
In a rain-affected Test, Kane Williamson scored a brilliant, match-saving century to deny South Africa a 2-0 series win. Oh, and Graeme Smith made one of the great declarations to give him a hand.