England left feeling flat by Lord’s pitch
Strauss blames dead surface for tepid draw and hopes Anderson will return for the series decider
ENGLAND captain Andrew Strauss blamed the lifeless Lord’s pitch for his side’s failure to force a victory on the final day of the second Test.
Alastair Cook continued his rich vein of form by reaching his sixth century in his last nine Test innings and his 18th overall, while Kevin Pietersen returned to something like his best with a classy 72.
However, disciplined Sri Lankan bowling and a strangely conservative Cook meant Strauss was unable to declare at lunch. The Essex left-hander and Ian Bell upped the tempo after the interval but England’s attack were given just 58 overs to bowl out the tourists, who were set 343 to win.
Unlike in Cardiff last week, Sri Lanka’s batsmen offered stiff resistance and the players eventually shook hands on a draw with 15 overs remaining and the visitors on 127-3.
“We didn’t expect them to fold quite as they did [in the first Test] at Cardiff, and they didn’t on a flat wicket,” said Strauss. “The guys had toiled hard, and you get the feeling as a side whether you’re likely to get wickets or not – and it just seemed that we’d run our race.”
England’s pace attack never offered a consistent threat over the course of a match that always seemed destined to end in a draw with Steven Finn, Chris Tremlett and Stuart Broad failing to grasp the nettle in the absence James Anderson.
The Lancashire paceman will go straight back into the team, fitness permitting, for the final Test of the series at the Rose Bowl leaving Strauss with a potentially difficult selection issue, not that the captain was giving away anything yesterday.
“Hopefully he [Anderson] will be fit but we don’t know at this stage,” he added.
Despite criticism of his scoring rate on the final morning the match represented another personal triumph for Cook, who added 106 to his first innings 96.
The 26-year-old is just four away from Wally Hammond’s all-time record of 22 centuries for England and the Essex left-hander believes those who suggested he should have batted more selflessly yesterday were wide of the mark.
“When we went out there today we were only 140 runs ahead, so if you lose a couple of wickets it’s not a great position. It was about getting through that first hour,” he said. “We actually scored at four an over in that session but you have to give credit to how Sri Lanka bowled.”
Sri Lanka are likely to be without Tillakaratne Dilshan for the final Test. The skipper, who won the man of the match award for his first innings 193, is not expected to have recovered from a fracture of his right thumb which prevented him from batting yesterday.