Rain in Wales - Day One at Cardiff

Following a positively Saharan spring it was no surprise to dyed in the wool cricket supporters that the first day of the international summer dawned rainy and cool. It even rained in Cambridge, a city where grassland and concrete has long been indistinguishable, so Cardiff had no chance.

There was a time when a morning of rain would have put paid to play for the day, but drainage systems and attitudes have changed since the 1980 Centenary Test and the constant fretting of Dickie Bird, so although play didn’t start until mid-afternoon there was still time for forty-eight overs and for the game to start to take shape.

In truth, though, foreshortened days are seldom entirely satisfactory, and today was no exception, the game being finely poised when stumps were drawn. Both sides played some good cricket, England bowling pretty consistently and beating the bat without getting the nicks that they were looking for, while the Sri Lankans batted with intelligence and application to overcome the conditions and make a solid start. Tharanga Paranavitana in particular showed good judgment in leaving the ball alone while Tillakaratne Dilshan successfully reined in his more aggressive instincts before falling to an ill-judged cut. His observation at the end of the day that he had batted within himself but would still go 100% at anything that was there for him brought to mind the words of an erstwhile batting partner of mine who observed that that was fine, it was just the judgment of what was there that was concerning him, but he showed admirable restraint.

Kumar Sangakkara’s indifferent record in England was maintained with the lightest feather through to Prior. His head shaking lead to the dismissal being described as controversial, but the evidence supported the decision of the third umpire and was reward for a fine spell from Anderson. Paranavitana and Mahela Jayawardene survived fairly comfortably to stumps, so the first session on Friday will be crucial. Sri Lanka’s batting lacks depth with Prasanna Jayawardene, fine keeper though he is, probably too high at six and Samaraweera, for all of his career average of over fifty, averages just 4.25 in England. If England can knock over a couple of wickets in the first hour then they will be in the box seat, but if Sri Lanka can survive until lunch with only one wicket down they will feel that they are in the box seat. Bring it on.