Life is a Rollercoaster - England Story

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Second Test

England pick an unchanged side for the second Test.

Sri Lanka win the toss and bat.
England's fast bowlers get rip through Sri Lanka in the opening session with Woakes striking three times, Anderson twice and Broad once to leave Sri Lanka 88/6 at lunch. Broad takes another two wickets in consecutive overs after lunch puts England firmly in the driving seat. But a Kaushal Silva fifty, supported by Mendis, takes Sri Lanka to 177 all out.
England bat patiently throughout their innings on a difficult batting surface. They lose just two wickets before the close of play, Strauss and Bopara. Cook forms the backbone of the innings scoring a 316 ball 86 supported by 42 from Pietersen, 23 from Cobb and 54 from Skelton. Broad bats well for his 47 to see England above the 300 mark.
Anderson and Woakes again bowl well with the new ball, quickly reducing Sri Lanka to 28/4. Kaushal Silva again bats well to reach another fifty but this time he is supported by Perera. They put on 127 together before Broad removes Silva for 73. Swann finally arrives at the party to take four of the last five wickets, Anderson getting the other leaving Perera 119 not out.
England set about chasing the 127 to win the series with a 75 run partnership before losing Strauss for 34. Cook reaches 60 and takes his side within 8 runs of victory before becoming Mendis’ second victim. Bopara and Pietersen take England to an 8 wicket victory.

England Man of the Match – Cook, great batting on a difficult batting pitch.
Other Notable Mentions – Gould, Woakes, Anderson
Poor Game – Strauss, Bopara, Skelton

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Third Test

England are again unchanged for the final Test.

Sri Lanka win the toss and bat.
If the last pitch was a bowler’s paradise then this one proves to be a batsman’s paradise as Sri Lanka rack up 349/8 on day one. Broad takes the early wicket then next morning with Anderson getting his fifth soon after to bowl Sri Lanka out for 353.
A 151 run opening stand gets England off to a good start before losing Strauss for 71. Cook makes exactly 100 while Pietersen can only match Strauss’ 71. A century stand between Gould and Broad takes England ahead. Gould makes 85 and Broad 55 as England are bowled out for 436.
England’s pace attack reduce Sri Lanka to 86/3 before the close of day three. Swann steals the limelight from the quicks, picking up 5-38 in his 15.4 overs on day four to bowl Sri Lanka out for 223 half way through the day, a lead of 140.
Strauss makes 42 and Cook 61 before England lose three quick wickets before the close of play with Pietersen and Cobb easily knocking off the remaining runs the next morning to lead England to a 3-0 whitewash.

England Man of the Match – Cook, century in the first innings and made it five straight fifties in the second.
Other Notable Mentions – Anderson, Swann, Strauss Pietersen, Gould
Poor Game – Bopara, Skelton, Woakes

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The ECB Selection Committee has announced the 15 man ODI squad to tour Sri Lanka:

ECB Selection Committee
A Cook(C)
J Anderson
R Bopara
S Broad
M Cale
A Flintoff
K Gould
A Ingram
S Neville
S Patel
K Pietersen
A Rashid
I Skelton
G Swann
C Woakes

No real surprises in this squad with just one change to the ODI squad that beat the Aussies at home, Ingram in for Wright.

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First ODI

Flintoff and Swann play ahead of Woakes and Rashid while Bopara also retains his opening berth ahead of Neville.

Sri Lanka win the toss and bat.
Flintoff takes the early wicket of Tharanga but Sangakkara and Matthews build a useful partnership. They begin to take the attack to the England bowlers but Pietersen takes a rare ODI wicket, removing Sagakkara for 53. Matthews though goes on to a century as Sri Lanka punish some ordinary death bowling from England's seamers to take them to a total of 265.

England start well with solid contributions from Cook and Bopara. Pietersen steadily moves through the gears while Gould keeps the run rate in check. He makes 39 from 29 before Kulasekara traps him lbw in the 40th over with England 49 short of victory. Pietersen narrowly misses out on a century as he leads the side home to victory with 21 balls to spare.

England win by 7 wickets
Man of the Match - Matthews
England Man of the Match – Pietersen, played the match winning innings. Started slowly but soon caught up to near a run a ball.
Other Notable Mentions – Cook, Patel, Flintoff
Poor Game – Broad

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Second ODI

England stick with an unchanged side for the second match in the series.

England win the toss and put Sri Lanka in to bat.
Sri Lanka start with a 55 run opening stand but then lose Sangakkara, Tharanga and Matthews in quick succession. Jayawardene and Kaushal Silva lead the recovery but when they try to accelerate wickets begin to fall. Despite this they still enjoy a productive batting powerplay and look on track for a big score. But this time England execute their plans at the death far better, restricting Sri Lanka to 266.

Bopara takes the attack to the opening bowlers but he loses Cook and Pietersen at the other end. But he can't make any more than 45 and despite contributions from Gould and Cale England look to be falling short. That is until Skelton comes to the crease. He bats well and supported by Broad England keep up with the rate. However, when Broad edges spinner Hewage to the keeper for 28 England are still 22 short with 23 balls left. They go into final over requiring 6 runs. Swann dispels any nerves by striking the first ball to the boundary. A dot ball followed by a single gets Skelton back on strike who hits the winning runs with the next delivery to give England a 2-0 unassailable series lead.

England win by 2 wickets
Man of the Match - Skelton
England Man of the Match – Skelton, played his best ODI innings so far to take England to a series victory.
Other Notable Mentions – Flintoff, Anderson, Bopara
Poor Game – Broad, Pietersen

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Third ODI

England are unchanged going into the final match of the series.

Sri Lanka win the toss and bat.
England take early wickets through Anderson and Broad. Sangakkara bats well for his half century but Swann sends him on his way in his second over. Swann gets his second soon after with fellow spinners Patel and Pietersen pick up a wicket each while bowling economically. Flintoff and Broad return to finish off the tail for 157.

Despite losing Cook to the first ball England complete a simple victory within 32 overs. Bopara gets the bulk of the runs while an unbeaten 50 from Gould steers England to victory and takes him past 1000 ODI runs in just his 22nd innings.

England win by 6 wickets
Man of the Match - Bopara
England Man of the Match – Bopara, set the tone with the bat striking above a run a ball.
Other Notable Mentions – Flintoff, Patel, Anderson, Gould
Poor Game – Cook, Cale

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Series Reaction
England win Test series - 3-0
England win ODI series - 3-0

A very successful tour with six victories in six. Victory in the Test series was expected despite Sri Lanka being a very good side, especially at home. But to win all the Tests is a great achievement.

Victory in the ODI series was a little more unexpected but it just goes to show how far the ODI side has come that a whitewash has been achieved. The batting has been the biggest improvement, shown by the fact the best three ODI batsmen in the world currently are English.

Man of the Test Series - Cook, batted well at the top of the order throughout the series and despite some bowler friendly conditions managed to average 64.17 with four 50s and one 100.

Man of the ODI Series - Flintoff, good consistent bowling in all three games proves he's still got it keeping Woakes and Ingram out of the side.

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The ECB Selection Committee has announced the 18 man Test squad to tour Bangladesh:

ECB Selection Committee
A Stauss(C)
J Anderson
R Bopara
S Broad
M Cale
J Cobb
A Cook
K Gould
P Horton
A Ingram
G Onions
S Patel
K Pietersen
M Prior
A Rashid
I Skelton
G Swann
C Woakes

Ingram, Horton and Prior replace Bresnan, Wainwright and Davies for the Bangladesh leg of the winter tour.

Before the Test series vs Bangladesh England play a warm-up match against Dhaka.

England Team to play Dhaka
Strauss*, Cook, Cobb, Pietersen, Gould, Skelton^, Rashid, Broad, Swann, Woakes, Anderson

Dhaka - Bat

Dhaka - 190 all out(Anderson 2-29, Woakes 1-54, Broad, 4-64, Swann 1-20, Rashid 2-23)
England 291/9(Strauss 34, Cook 35, Cobb 21, Pietersen 42, Gould 0, Skelton 2, Rashid 55, Broad 74, Swann 15, Woakes 3*, Anderson 3*)
Dhaka 83 all out(Anderson 4-37, Woakes 1-8, Broad 3-28, Rashid 2-10)

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First Test

With very favourable conditions for spinners, even on day one, England bring in both Patel and Rashid for Woakes and Cobb with Bopara staying in the side to offer a third pace option.

Bangladesh win the toss and bat.
Anderson and Bopara each take an early wicket but it's with the introduction of spin where Bangladesh really suffer with Swann taking four quick wickets to reduce them to 86/6. But Gul rallies the tail and supported by Jubair takes Bangladesh to 223 all out with Swann picking up a further two wickets and Rashid also taking two.
A 78 run opening stand gives England a solid start but after an excellent spell of bowling from Shakib, taking five wickets, combined with the run out of Gould England are reduced to 152/6 and are in danger of conceding a first innings deficit. Skelton, though, has other ideas and, supported by Rashid's 35, begins to drag England out of trouble. He gets England up to 305 before Anderson becomes the final wicket of the innings to fall, leaving Skelton stranded on 92 not out.
Broad takes two early wickets aswell as forcing Shakib to retire hurt. From there the innings follows a similar pattern to the first with Swann picking up another five wickets and Rahsid two with Hossain the only batsman to cause any trouble to leave England a chase of 68.
It's a chase England manage easily, losing just Cook along the way to taking a 1-0 lead in the two match series.

England Man of the Match – Swann, on pitch excellent for spin you expect your prime spinner to take wickets and he did just that with his first ever 10 wicket haul in Tests.
Other Notable Mentions – Strauss, Skelton
Poor Game – Pietersen, Gould, Anderson

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Second Test

Woakes returns to the side in place of Patel and Cobb replaces Bopara while Rashid retains his second spinner role.

Strauss falls early for 21 but both Cobb and Cook make centuries. A late flurry of wickets sees England end day one 327/5. England lose just Rashid for 37 on day a heavily rain interrupted day two but after Gould departs for 78 England collapse to 499 all out on the morning of day three.
Anderson and Woakes both take early wickets but it's left to Swann and Rashid to do most of the work in the middle overs taking five wickets between them before England's new ball bowlers finish off the tail with the second new ball.
England lose Strauss for 25 and Cobb for 13 but after a 188 runs stand, and another Cook ton, England declare with a lead of 460 late on day four.
Anderson removes Iqbal before stumps as Bangladesh close on 20/1. Another Anderson wicket early on day five and two wickets from Broad take England closer to victory. Rashid, this time, is the pick of the spinners, taking three wickets to Swann's one before Woakes finishes the job with the first over of the new ball.

England Man of the Match – Cook, a century in each innings, top performance.
Other Notable Mentions – Pietersen, Cobb, Gould
Poor Game – Skelton, Strauss

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The ECB Selection Committee has announced the 15 man ODI squad to tour Bangladesh:

ECB Selection Committee
A Cook(C)
J Anderson
T Ash
R Bopara
S Broad
M Cale
K Gould
J Harris
A Ingram
S Neville
S Patel
K Pietersen
A Rashid
I Skelton
G Swann
C Woakes

James Harris and young off-spinner Thomas Ash replace the rested Flintoff and Swann.

Thomas Ash RHB, OS
Hampshire
Bowler
Aged 20

Bolwing Averages
First Class – 27.26
One Day – 22.40
T20 – 15.26

Aggressive style
Slight pace bowling preference
Slight front foot preference
Slight leg side preference

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First ODI

Ash is chosen as the second spinner, ahead of Patel with Rashid in for Swann and Woakes in for Flintoff the other changes from the side that played Sri Lanka.

Bangladesh win the toss and put England in.
Bar Pietersen England bat poorly with only Cale scoring more than 20 runs as Bangladesh take wickets regularly. But Pietersen makes sure England get to a decent score with a well played century and is only out in the last few overs.

The Bangladesh innings follows a similar pattern with Mahmudullah Mahmudullah getting most of the runs. He, however, falls in the 90s to Broad who picks up three wickets despite proving expensive early on. Rashid bowls well to restrict Bangladesh in the middle overs while Ash picks up two wickets. Bangladesh look to be on course, however, when they get the run rate below 4 RPO but England's pace bowlers return to finish off the tail with Bangladesh 21 runs short.

England win by 20 runs
Man of the Match - Pietersen
England Man of the Match – Pietersen, batted at a good tempo but made sure he didn't throw away his wicket whilst wickets were tumbling at the other end.
Other Notable Mentions – Rashid
Poor Game – Cook, Bopara, Gould

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Second ODI

No changes for England in the series' second match.

Bangladesh win the toss and bowl.
England lose Cook, Bopara and Gould early but again Pietersen makes a century, this time off 126 balls. He is supported by Cale and Skelton who both make good scores which helps get England up to 274.

Woakes and Anderson quickly reduce Bangladesh to 17-3. Bopara then takes two wickets in an over to put England on top. Bangladesh rebuild against spin until Ash breaks the 70 run stand between Saleh and Kapali. Rashid then finishes Bangladesh off with four wickets.

England win by 88 runs
Man of the Match - Pietersen
England Man of the Match – Pietersen, again provided the backbone to the innings letting Cale and Skelton bat around him.
Other Notable Mentions – Cale, Skelton, Rashid
Poor Game – Broad, Cook, Bopara

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Third ODI

England are unchanged as they aim for another ODI series whitewash.

Bangladesh win the toss and bat.
Bangladesh start well, fending off the seamers without loss. Ash breaks the 70 run opening stand in his first over. He goes on to take two wickets with his fourth. Rashid then removes Iqbal for 71 with Ash striking again in the very next over as Bangladesh collapse to 134/5. Mehrab Hossain digs them out of trouble with 71 but Anderson and Broad return with two and three wickets respectively to bowl the hosts out for 220.

Cook anchors the innings, batting steadily and combined with Bopara England start well. Pietersen and Gould both help England towards their target but it's left to Cale and Skelton to guide the side to victory with 34 balls to spare.

England win by 6 wickets
Man of the Match - Ash
England Man of the Match – Ash, dismissed four of the top six whilst also managing to reduce his economy from the last two matches at the same time.
Other Notable Mentions – Anderson, Cook, Rashid
Poor Game – Broad

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Series Reaction
England win Test series - 2-0
England win ODI series - 3-0

A second successive 100% tour, although against weaker opposition. The pitches were very tricky and runs sometimes hard to come by but the bowlers did well to exploit the conditions to earn the side two comfortable victories.

Like in the Test series anything other than a whitewash would be considered a failure but the team still has to get the job done. That they did with a couple of good bowling performances to defend a pair of lower than normal scores.

Man of the Test Series - Cook, like most batsmen he struggled in the first Test but the pitch in the second Test wasn't much better but he got himself in and made sure he cashed in his starts in both innings to get himself two centuries.

Man of the ODI Series - Pietersen, the Bangladeshi pitches did prove difficult to bat on throughout the tour but Pietersen made sure he didn't give his wicket away easily, making two centuries while allowing others to bat around him.