England feast as Caddick cuts heart out of Sri Lanka

In conditions as English as fish and chips, England's seam bowlers added the side dishes of mushy peas and potato fritters to Nasser Hussain's Edgbaston platter with a high-class display of fast-medium bowling yesterday.

For Hussain, the day could hardly have gone better. The England captain would have been thrilled with his bowlers, following their disappointing display during the first Test, as they made the most of his decision to field first in bowler-friendly conditions and dismissed Sri Lanka for only 162.

In safely reaching 24 for 0 in seven overs, his openers would have allowed Hussain to contentedly enjoy his evening meal, looking forward to better weather today.

Andrew Caddick was the pick of England's bowlers, cutting the heart out of the Sri Lankan batting during an outstanding spell of high-class bowling just before tea. Extracting steep bounce from this slow but helpful surface, he unsettled all the batsmen, but took his wickets through pitching the ball up, having already forced them on the back foot. His dismissal of Mahele Jayawardene was crucial as the sublime Sri Lankan looked the only player capable of coming to terms with the conditions.

The equally tall Alex Tudor, bowling with similar style, gave him excellent support and took two important wickets when Caddick tired and Sri Lanka looked like putting up some tail-end resistance.

Tudor once again looked the part at this level, running in with purpose and control. He was wicketless in his first spell, but then took the wickets of Hashan Tillakaratne and Nuwan Zoysa in the first over of his second.

Sporadic showers in the morning delayed the start of play until 1.40pm, but for England and Hussain this was the only real setback until a further shower just after tea kept them off the field for 13 overs. In all, 28 overs were lost to the weather.

Winning the toss helps, especially if every statistic you look at suggests what you should do, but putting any side in is a bold decision. Hussain is not normally used to making these sort of decisions having won only four of his previous 23 attempts, but on this occasion had no hesitation in inviting Sri Lanka to bat.

Both sides made justifiable changes to their bowling attacks which lacked penetration and variety at Lord's. England took the enterprising and aggressive option of playing five bowlers. Dropping John Crawley for left-arm spinner Ashley Giles and swapping Alex Tudor for Dominic Cork showed the strength of England's desire to win.

Sri Lanka had a pleasant decision to make, once Muttiah Muralitharan had announced his desire to play. Selecting such a match-winner, even if he isn't 100 per cent fit, would have helped soften the blow of leaving Ruchira Perera, their left-arm seamer at the centre of the throwing controversy, out.

Matthew Hoggard, who like Caddick struggled at Lord's, gave useful support, but again his bowling was bit of a mixed bag. Despite lacking rhythm, Hussain gave him plenty of work into the teeth of a strong wind and the two wickets he took were just reward for a competitor with a big heart. His first success, that of Marvan Atapattu, got England up and running. Atapattu, who had been in little trouble, for no reason nibbled at one just outside off stump, Alec Stewart did the rest.

His second and equally valuable scalp was in his second spell. Aravinda de Silva who was looking to be positive attempted a back-foot forcing shot, sliced a catch to Marcus Trescothick at gully.

The early introduction of Giles lasted only three overs before Andrew Flintoff was welcomed into the attack by having his first ball cut for four by Kumar Sangakkara. His partnership of 53 with Jayawardene was the tourists most comfortable period of the day. Their partnership was ended by a piece of cricket where only Stewart could be seen as the winner. Flintoff bowled a wide fullish delivery to which Sangakkara almost swung himself off his feet trying to hit it. He nearly fell flat on his face giving Stewart his 200th Test dismissal as a wicketkeeper.

Edgbaston scoreboard

First day; England won toss

SRI LANKA First Innings

M S Atapattu c Stewart b Hoggard 13

36 min, 30 balls, 1 four

*S T Jayasuriya c Stewart b Caddick 8

40 min, 24 balls, 1 four

ÝK Sangakkara c Stewart b Flintoff 16

70 min, 42 balls, 1 four

D P M D Jayawardene c Flintoff b Caddick 47

91 min, 60 balls, 7 fours

P A de Silva c Trescothick b Hoggard 10

13 min, 12 balls, 2 fours

H P Tillekeratne lbw b Tudor 20

75 min, 53 balls, 3 fours

R P Arnold c Flintoff b Caddick 1

15 min, 13 balls

W P U C J Vaas b Flintoff 23

85 min, 52 balls, 4 fours

D N T Zoysa c Hoggard b Tudor 0

3 min, 4 balls

T C B Fernando run out 13

36 min, 36 balls

M Muralitharan not out 0

5 min, 1 ball

Extras (b1, nb10) 11

Total (239 min, 52.5 overs) 162

Fall: 1-23 (Atapattu), 2-23 (Jayasuriya), 3-76 (Sangakkara), 4-96 (de Silva), 5-100 (Jayawardene), 6-108 (Arnold), 7-141 (Tillekeratne), 8-141 (Zoysa), 9-159 (Vaas).

Bowling: Caddick: 17-4-47-3 (nb4) (7-1-13-1, 10-3-34-2); Hoggard: 17-4-55-2 (nb5) (5-1-23-1, 3-1-14-1, 9-2-18-0); Giles 4-1-7-0 (3-1-6-0, 1-0-1-0); Tudor: 9.5-3-25-2 (nb1) (5-1-18-0, 4.5-2-7-2); Flintoff 5-0-27-2 (4-0-22-1, 1-0-5-1).

Progress: First day: Rain delayed start until 1.40pm. 50: 80 min, 17.1 overs. 100: 126 min, 27 overs. Tea: 108 for 6 (Tillekeratne 7) 32.1 overs. Rain stopped play: 4.52-5.45pm 116 for 6 (Tillekeratne 8, Vaas 6) 38 overs. 150: 222 min, 49.1 overs. Innings closed: 6.52pm.

ENGLAND First Innings

M E Trescothick not out 9

26 min, 19 balls, 2 fours

M P Vaughan not out 14

26 min, 23 balls, 1 four

Extras (lb1) 1

Total (0 wkt, 26 min, 7 overs) 24

Bowling: Vaas 4-0-15-0; Zoysa 1-0-7-0; Muralitharan 2-1-1-0 (one spell each).

To bat: M A Butcher, *N Hussain, G P Thorpe, ÝA J Stewart, A Flintoff, A J Tudor, A F Giles, A R Caddick, M J Hoggard.

Umpires: D J Harper (Aus) and S Venkataraghavan (Ind).