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Cricket-Bullying Flintoff wrecks Sri Lanka first innings

By Tony Lawrence

NOTTINGHAM, England, June 2 - England captain
Andrew Flintoff produced a bullying master-class on the opening
day of the third test at Trent Bridge on Friday to leave Sri
Lanka on 160 for eight at tea.

The tourists, 1-0 down in the three-match series, will need
a near miracle to turn the game around and salvage something
from the series. They struggled despite sunny conditions and a
blameless track.

Chaminda Vaas was 10 not out at the tea interval, with
Lasith Malinga undefeated on 13 at the other end.

Sri Lanka, opting to bat, had looked nicely placed on 84 for
one 10 minutes before lunch but then lost the guts of their
batting during the next 40 minutes either side of the break.
Three wickets went down in three overs before the interval and
it was 105 for six soon after.

Flintoff, working up a real sweat and hitting speeds of over
91mph as he thundered in from the Pavilion end, took three
wickets for 21 in an awe-inspiring 10-over spell.

His wickets were of the highest quality - Kumar Sangakkara,
Mahela Jayawardene and Sanath Jayasuriya - and the giant
all-rounder also chipped in with two neat catches at second slip.

Sri Lanka might argue that Sangakkara, whose fall sparked
the top-order collapse, did not get a touch to the Flintoff's
delivery which cost him his wicket, caught behind for 36.

England, though, might respond that the stylish left-hander
was lucky not to go first ball when he appeared to edge a
leg-side catch to wicketkeeper Geraint Jones.

Had that first decision been upheld, medium-pacer Jon Lewis
would have opened with two wickets in his first over in test
cricket.

Instead, he had to make do with one as Michael Vandort, who
made a century in his previous innings, edged an inswinger into
his leg stump to make it two for one.

Lewis, Matthew Hoggard and Liam Plunkett chipped in with
wickets throughout the day although it was hard at times to see
why.

They pitched the ball up and bowled decent lines outside off
stump but the Sri Lankans continued to play and miss long after
the early swing and seam movement had evaporated.

Flintoff, though, was a different proposition, banging the
ball in belligerently short and hurrying all the batsmen.

Jayawardene also edged behind, for a duck, while Jayasuriya,
batting at six, scratched his way to four before prodding
forward and sending a catch off the shoulder of his bat to gully.

Sri Lanka had gambled on Jayasuriya after the 36-year-old
former captain had been coaxed out of a short-lived retirement
in an attempt to solve their first-innings batting problems.

The move, though, seemed to have failed. In the first test
Sri Lanka had made 192 first up, followed by 141 in the first
innings at Edgbaston. They would have aimed for a minimum of 400
at Trent Bridge.

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