THE DEMOLITION

Image Credit- ESPN CricInfo.

Venue- Headingley Cricket Ground, Leeds [July 1, 2006].

In the English Summer of 2006, dramatically and brutally, the Sri Lankan Cricket Team completed their 5-0 thumping of England's underperforming one-day team. Even though England had hit their highest score of the series (321/7) while batting first, the Sri Lankans were on such a high roll that this ordinarily formidable total offered little concern. Having won the toss in the final ODI, England chose to bat first and appeared to be building a big lead thanks to a century from Marcus Trescothick. Vikram Solanki and Alastair Cook too had scores in the 40s, and at the midway point, 321/7 looked like a manageable total.

But Sanath Jayasuriya and Upul Tharanga swiftly dashed any hopes that the 5-0 rout would be avoided, as they both went into a bowling attack, they knew had already seen its confidence eroded from the series' earlier games. The Sri Lankan reply scored an incredible 133 runs in the first ten overs. In a hopeless attempt to stop the run scoring, Andrew Strauss kept switching up his bowling attack, even using Jamie Dalrymple's spin as early as the eighth over. Nevertheless, Jayasuriya and Tharanga were unstoppable; even though their scoring rates somewhat decreased when fielding restrictions were removed, they carried on with their merrymaking and amassed an incredible 286 partnership, which was broken in the 32nd over, meaning that just 36 more runs were needed to win. In 72 balls, Jayasuriya reached his century, while Tharanga reached his in 82. With the score at 286/1, Dalrymple caught and bowled Tharanga for 109. Jayasuriya then went 4 balls later for an incredible 152 off just 99 balls.

With just 17 overs remaining, Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene managed to score the final 33 runs, and the victory was soon secured. With 12.3 overs remaining, the target of 322 was chased down, completing the whitewash.

To watch the highlights of that Incredible Partnership, Click Here.