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A look at the England-Sri Lanka 2nd test

Sri Lanka lost its last eight wickets for 49 in 72 balls in less than an hour. No one expected England would win the first test by an innings in a game that Graeme Swann said had a “club feel.”

With James Anderson injured and out of the squad, England may consider playing a fifth bowler on what is usually a benign Lord’s pitch.

England has won five of its last seven tests by an innings, but was probably lucky to get away with its strategy of playing four bowlers at Cardiff. Yet, it is a method that has served it well. England last went into a test with five frontline bowlers against Bangladesh at Mirpur 15 months ago. Since then it has won nine out of 12 tests, with two losses and a draw.

Yet, the workload takes a huge toll on bowlers. In Australia, Anderson looked mentally exhausted, and in the last six years five England pace bowlers have broken down in mid-test.

In 2005, Simon Jones injured his right ankle and played his last test at Trent Bridge. In 2007, Matthew Hoggard suffered a thigh strain in a Lord’s test and played just four more tests for England. In Antigua in 2009, Andrew Flintoff sustained a hip injury and played only four tests after that match. Last December in the Adelaide test, Stuart Broad tore an abdominal muscle so severely that he missed the rest of the tour of Australia. Now Anderson will miss the Lord’s test with a side strain.

If Steven Finn plays England could field the tallest ever bowling combination in the history of the game. According to The Cricketers’ Who’s Who Finn is 6-foot-7 (2.01 meters), Stuart Broad 6-6 (1.98) and Chris Tremlett 6-7 (2.01), so they have a combined height of 19-8 (6).

Andrew Strauss has the opportunity to become the first captain to win five tests at Lord’s. Currently, Strauss, Peter May and Nasser Hussain have won four each at the home of cricket.

Strauss made his test debut at Lord’s in 2004 against New Zealand, scoring 112 and 83. He has 1,360 runs with four centuries and six 50s in 14 tests there at an average of 61.81.

This is Alastair Cook’s 65^th consecutive test, equalling the record held by Alan Knott and Ian Botham for the most consecutive tests played for England. It is his 67^th test in all and at age 26 he has already scored 17 test hundreds. Sachin Tendulkar scored 22 hundreds before the age of 27. Cook has two hundreds at Lords: Against Pakistan in 2006 and West Indies in 2007. His batting average has never dropped below 40.

At Cardiff, Kevin Pietersen was out to slow left-armer Rangana Herath. It was the 19^th time in his career he had been dismissed by that style of bowler. All 19 have come in the most recent part of his career, his last 58 completed innings, beginning in March 2008 when New Zealand’s Daniel Vettori had him caught and bowled at Hamilton. Pietersen has been dismissed 43 times in international cricket including 17 times in ODIs and seven times in Twenty20s. Geoff Boycott says that, like an alcoholic, in order to deal with the problem he first has to acknowledge that he has a problem.

The last time England played Sri Lanka at Lord’s was in May 2006. The match ended unexpectedly in a draw after Sri Lanka, 359 behind on the first innings, batted 199 overs to secure the draw. Sri Lanka was 381-6 going into the final day, but England managed to take three wickets, with Chaminda Vaas and Nuwan Kulasekara adding 105 for the ninth wicket. Head to head=

Overall: Played 22; England 9, Sri Lanka 6, 7 draws.

In England: Played 11; England 6, Sri Lanka 2, 3 draws. Players to watch= England=

Man of the match in Cardiff, Jonathan Trott averages 223 in tests at Lord’s. He was named England’s cricketer of the year in the Long Room at Lord’s on Tuesday and will walk through there again on his way to the wicket. His scores in tests at Lord’s are 226, 36 not out, and 184. This will be his 20^th test and he needs 197 runs to reach 2,000 runs. The fastest to 2,000 for England were Herb Sutcliffe and Pietersen, who both needed 22 tests to pass that milestone.

Internationally, Don Bradman took 15, George Headley 17 and Michael Hussey 20.

Cardiff was Trott’s first test against Sri Lanka, so his average against it is a healthy 203.00.

Trott’s batting average is 66.78 and only Harry Wood, a wicketkeeper who played only four games, has a higher batting average for England. Looking at test players who have played a minimum of five tests, only Bradman with his average of 99.94 tops Trott. Sri Lanka=

Mahela Jayawardene came late to the tour after a stint in the IPL for Kochi Tuskers Kerala. He played on May 15 at Indore, then had just one first-class game to acclimatize before the Cardiff test began on May 26. His scores there were 4 and 15.

But he is Sri Lanka’s leading runscorer with 9,546 runs at 53.32, with 28 hundreds and 38 50s and has played 117 tests, more than any of their players apart from Muttiah Muralitharan.

After scoring two hundreds in his only two appearances at Lord’s, if Jayawardene scores another hundred he will become only the second overseas player to score three hundreds there after India’s Dilip Vengsarkar. Milestones=

This is Sri Lanka’s 200^th test.

Trott needs 197 for 2,000.

Pietersen needs 94 to become the sixth batsman to score 1,000 at Lord’s.

Finn needs four wickets for 50 in his 12^th test.

Strauss took four catches at Cardiff and needs two more to become the sixth England player to take 100.