Sri Lanka bowled out for 82 in 24.4 overs on the 5th day succumbing to a humiliating innings loss to a rampaging England. Whenever someone says Sri Lanka has a strong batting line up, he actually means Sangakkara, Jayawardene and Dilshan are in top form.Against a top class English seam bowling attack on English conditions, these 3 surrendered without a noise. These were the players who were fighting the Sri Lankan Cricket Board to allow them to play in the IPL and miss the "unneccesary" warm up games. While the 3 could n't do much for their franchises and left them at the bottom of the table, their lack of practice in the longer format made them vulnerable against the likes of Tremlett and Broad. There is no doubt about the batting abilities of Sangakkara and jayawaredene but their negligence for the warm-up games and playing in the circus..err.. IPL made them look like scapegoats in England. While the rest did n't show the kind of resilience they had shown in the first innings. The likes of prassana jayawardena and paranavitana fell like nine-pins. The seaming red ball on the final day of a test match was just too much for them. I feel Sri Lanka batting line up is not what this test match reflects. They are far far better than this. They just need to get over this IPLaria. I don't know why these international players leave their national commitments for an Indian domestic league which in anycase would benefit India only. They can get money in IPL but not the kind of respect they would get in scoring a match saving ton on the final day of a test rather than smashing the ball around in small Indian parks.Only time will tell whether the Sri lankan batsmen live to the expectations and bounce back from the IPLaria.
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