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We still have to lift ourselves - Jayawardene

Pakistan in Sri Lanka 2009

Despite a series win, Mahela Jayawardene has said Sri Lanka still need to go a fair distance to hit peak form. Jayawardene, who gave up the captaincy after Sri Lanka's aborted tour to Pakistan in March, felt Kumar Sangakkara was playing the right cards as leader of a somewhat inexperienced side.

"Winning the second Test was a fantastic achievement and a great effort from all the guys in the team," he wrote on his website. "So to play below par and take a 2-0 lead is really pleasing. [But] the fact is that we are not playing brilliant Test cricket right now and there is some way for us to get to our best. As Sanga [Sangakkara] said afterwards, it reflects well on the teamwork and the fact that when we needed something special someone put their hand up.

"The thing is with captaincy is that you need to make bold decisions and you need to think out of the box," he said. "Sanga has been doing that. Sometimes it will work and he'll be applauded. Other times it may backfire and he'll be heavily criticised. That's life, sadly. Sanga knows it too and he has a tough skin so it will be fine for him."

Jayawardene's assessment of what the home needed to do for a clean sweep was simple: "We searched for scoring opportunities and we punished the bad ball. We have to continue that in the final Test."

Having already squandered the series, Pakistan captain Younis Khan was hopeful his side could salvage a face-saving win in the final Test, starting in Colombo July 20. "We have to win this game," he told AFP. "There is a one-day series after this, and if we finish the Test well it will boost our confidence for those matches."

"The batting has let us down badly, but we can't afford another failure," said Pakistan coach Intikhab Alam. "There is a lot of pride to play for in the third Test."

England will want to win Ashes for Flintoff

With Andrew Flintoff set to hang up his Test boots after the ongoing Ashes, his English teammates would do everything to win the series as a farewell gift to the burly all-rounder, believes former Australia wicket keeper Adam Gilchrist.

Gilchrist paid glowing tribute to Flintoff and felt it would inspire England to put their best foot forward in the ongoing Ashes.

"I don't think the Aussies will be affected but it can be a boost for the English players," Gilchrist said.

"I know from my time that a when a great player retired, you did everything you could to see them off with a series win. So England will be up for this Ashes series even more," said the Australian.

Gilchrist had no qualms admitting that Flintoff, as an opponent, often made life difficult for him.

"Freddie announcing his retirement means there will be a lot of Test cricketers sleeping easy now.

"He definitely terrorised me and my team-mates on many occasions," he said.

Gilchrist was of the view that Flintoff, as the premier all-rounder of his era, shouldered more responsibility than his body could endure and paid the price with a premature retirement.

"It's always sad when a player of that calibre retires but his body clearly couldn't cope with the demands. I think Freddie is a victim of his own abilities and skill he happily took on huge responsibility with the bat and ball," he said.

Even though Flintoff's contract with the Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League added to the workload, Gilchrist did not see anything wrong in it.

"That brings physical stress but there is a lot of cricket around too and it's hard not to be drawn to financially rewarding competitions. You have to maximise your earnings in the small window of playing time you have in a career," said Gilchrist, who led Deccan Chargers to a fairytale triumph in the second edition of the IPL in South Africa.

Yuvraj jumps to No.2 after WI series

India News

It was an Indian one-two in the ICC ODI Rankings as dashing left-hander Yuvraj Singh zoomed to a career best second place, in the table topped by his captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Despite winning the four-match series against the West Indies, there was, however, no such good news for India as Dhoni's men missed a chance to reclaim the second spot in the ICC ODI Championship and remained third.

India needed to win all their matches against the West Indies but they went down in the second tie at Sabina Park even though it could not deny them a 2-1 series win in the Caribbeans.

Yuvraj made scores of 131, 35 and 2 in the three matches against the West Indies while the fourth ODI in St Lucia was washed out yesterday. His series contribution helped him jump two places and he now sits behind Dhoni who has consolidated his number one position.

Dhoni, whose place was under threat from Chris Gayle, Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Yuvraj, produced a consistent performance to strengthen his position at the top.

The wicketkeeper-batsman made scores of 41, 95 and 46 not out to walk away with the player of the series award.

Dhoni now leads Yuvraj by a comfortable 44-point margin.

The team-mates are likely to resume their battle for the top spot in September when India plays Sri Lanka and New Zealand in a proposed tri-series in Sri Lanka.

Yuvraj's leap by two places means Chanderpaul and Gayle have dropped one place each to the third and fourth places respectively.

There was bad news for India opener Gautam Gambhir, who has slipped four places to share 20th spot with New Zealands Ross Taylor. Gambhir scored 57 runs in the series with his highest score being 44 in the third ODI at St Lucia.

Yuvraj, meanwhile, has fallen out of the top five of the ICC Player Rankings for all-rounders.

The left-arm spinner remained wicketless while conceding 53 runs off six overs in the series and his failure to pick up a few wickets means he has slipped five places to eighth position.

Yuvraj's fall has benefitted the Pakistan duo of Shoaib Malik and Shahid Afridi, who have risen to joint-third spot, and the fifth placed Jacob Oram.

In the bowlers' charts, Indian off-spinner Harbhajan Singh lost three places to 26th while Praveen Kumar dropped six places to 33rd.

Ishant Sharma, however, managed to move up two rungs to 39th.

Strauss ton holds England together

England v Australia, 2nd npower Test, Lord's, 1st day


England 364 for 6 (Strauss 161*, Broad 7*) v Australia

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details

Andrew Strauss launched a stirring riposte to Ricky Ponting's 150 in Cardiff, carrying his bat through the first day to hand England the early ascendancy in the second Test. Strong off his pads, and stronger through the point region, Strauss (161 not out) moved within 16 runs of his highest ever Test score and beyond the 5,000-run career barrier. But the significance of this innings lay not in personal milestones but in its impact on an England team which, after the tea break, looked decided shaky against the enigmatic Mitchell Johnson and the consistent Ben Hilfenhaus.

Profligate in the first session, potent in the last, Johnson personified a day of fluctuating fortunes at Lord's. The foundations built by Strauss and Alastair Cook during an historic 196-run opening stand were eroded by a middle order stumble that drew Australia back into the contest. And, in both cases, Johnson was the pivotal figure.

Through his first 11 overs Johnson conceded 77 runs, including 15 boundaries, to allow England the opportunity to build on the bonhomie of their Cardiff escape. Whether overawed by the occasion of his first Lord's Test, upset by the ground's pronounced slope or just shy of form and confidence, Australia's spearhead appeared decidedly blunt in his exchanges with Strauss and Cook, guilty of straying both sides of the wicket and failing to find a consistent length in the period before tea.

But with a change of session came a change of fortune. The ball, which stubbornly refused to swing while still coated in lacquer, suddenly found its arc, with Johnson its pilot. His reverse swing slowed a scoring rate that had threatened to spiral out of control, and eventually accounted for the wicket of Matt Prior, bowled to a beautiful, tailing delivery.

Were it not for the stoic batting of Strauss, who ground his way to his highest Test score on home soil, Johnson, Hilfenhaus and Peter Siddle may well have seized back all the initiative surrendered in the earlier sessions. As it was, England headed to stumps in a position of strength, though perhaps not quite as strong as they might have hoped, after a final session in which four wickets fell for the addition of 109 runs.

Together with Cook, Strauss forged the highest first wicket partnership by an England combination at Lord's (196) in an Ashes Test, bettering by 14 runs the 83-year-old record held by Jack Hobbs and Herbert Sutcliffe. Though Cook fell just five runs short of his century, becoming Johnson's 100th Test scalp in the process, Strauss thrust forth into the evening, denying the probing offerings of Johnson and Hilfenhaus with both old and new balls

Prior to the final session, England's cause had been helped no end by an Australian attack that lurched from the lamentable to the horrendous, and one temporarily without the services of Nathan Hauritz. Hauritz, in dropping a powerfully struck return catch by Strauss, dislocated the middle finger on his bowling hand and was immediately taken from the field for treatment. So savage was the force of Strauss's drive that Hauritz, upon viewing his contorted finger, immediately signalled to the dressing room in distress and almost vomited on the pristine playing surface.

Scans cleared Hauritz of a fracture, and the off-spinner resumed his place in the field in the final session. But the Australians will nonetheless harbour significant concerns over Hauritz's effectiveness over the final four days - both for variation, and also the workload of their fast bowlers, who are playing the second of back-to-back Test matches.

Extras, misfields and overthrows all blighted Australia's morning effort, but by far the biggest disappointment was Johnson, who arrived on these shores trumpeted as the best paceman in international cricket. In a portent of what was to come, Johnson began the day with a full, leg-side delivery that Cook duly clipped to the square-leg boundary. His errant ways continued in the first half-hour, at one stage conceding four boundaries in six deliveries to Strauss, prompting Ponting to replace him with Siddle after four expensive (26 runs) overs.

Siddle, too, was awry, failing to contend with the slope of the Lord's pitch and making life difficult for Brad Haddin. Australia's only saving grace was Hilfenhaus, who began the match with three consecutive maidens and was rewarded after lunch with the wicket of Ravi Bopara. He might also have had Strauss earlier in the second session, if not for the small detail of his no-ball and Haddin's turfed catch. Strauss went onto raise his 18th Test century moments before tea. It was that kind of day for the Australians.

The confidence of England's openers visibly lifted over the course of the first session. Cook, the chief aggressor, enthralled the capacity Lord's crowd in the lead-up to lunch by pulling Johnson at every opportunity - not all of them from bad deliveries - en route to a half-century raised from just 73 deliveries. Strauss, save for a bright flurry against Johnson, was happy to steadily accumulate as part of a partnership that rocketed along to 125 by the lunch break.

Eight minutes prior to lunch, Cook and Strauss bettered their highest ever opening partnership against Australia, eclipsing their stand of 116 from the Perth Test two years ago. They advanced that total to 196 - England's highest opening stand in an Ashes Test since 1956 - before Cook fell in the 48th over to a fuller, straighter Johnson delivery that rapped him on the back pad.

England's day tapered thereafter. Bopara's cheap dismissal was compounded by that of Kevin Pietersen, whose aura is dimming with each innings at present. The prodigiously talented batsmen tried mightily to surrender his wicket before the tea break, and succeeded just after by playing inside a shorter Siddle delivery. Paul Collingwood, the rock of Cardiff, then fell to the loosest of strokes off the bowling of Michael Clarke, and was soon followed by Andrew Flintoff, the departing hero, who edged a Hilfenhaus offering to Ponting at second slip.

The onus fell to Strauss to save the day for England, and the captain duly obliged. He saw off both the reverse-swinging old ball, and the harder new one to ensure advantage remained with the hosts heading into the second day.

Ponting sees 'circus' in Flintoff farewell

The Ashes 2009

Australia captain Ricky Ponting believes England all-rounder Andrew Flintoff announcing his Test exit during the Ashes could create an unwanted 'circus' for the home side in the rest of the series.

Flintoff, whose career has been blighted by injury, chose the eve of the second Test here at Lord's to announce he would quit the five-day game at the end of the Ashes, which conclude in August across London at the Oval.

Ponting, speaking at Lord's after Flintoff had confirmed his Test retirement, told reporters: "I think we were all a little bit surprised with it to tell you the truth.

"If he ends up playing the remainder of the series I'm sure there'll be some outside distractions for the England team to deal with no matter if Andrew wanted it that way or not.

"I've been in teams where it's happened in Australia as well and it can be distracting, not just for the person involved but for the captain as well."

Ponting said the situation England found themselves in now was similar to the one confronting Australia when Steve Waugh, his predecessor as captain, made it clear the 2003/04 series at home to India would be his last in Tests.

"They were probably similar sort of figures in either side and either country. Everyone in Australia loved everything about Steve Waugh, the way he played, the way he led the side.

"We talked long and hard before the first Test of that series and making sure it didn't turn out to be a farewell tour for Steve.

"But as hard as we tried and as hard as he tried not to make it that way, sure enough it became very much heavily focused on everything he did."

He added: "We can't say yet if this will turn into a farewell tour but knowing the stature he (Flintoff) has in the game in England I can see it turning out like that.

"The fans here are very passionate about seeing Andrew Flintoff play so if they know it's the last chance to see him play here and last chance to play at Edgbaston and Headingley then there could be a circus around the ground."

Ponting, asked to assess Flintoff's worth as a player, said: "If you look at his bare statistics, they probably don't rate that flatteringly.

"But as far as someone that has an impact on the way a team plays and performs then he seems to be right up there.

"He just seems to be a guy that everyone would enjoy playing with. He's played the game in great spirit, everything he does, he's always got a smile on his face."

Last week's drawn first Ashes Test in Cardiff was Flintoff's first England appearance of the season following a knee injury. "You couldn't fault the effort he put in last week," Ponting said. "You wouldn't know he was injured."

Asked if Flintoff's decision to quit Tests was a sign that the fast-bowling all-rounder was an endangered species at the highest level given the volume of international cricket, Ponting said South Africa's Jacques Kallis was the exception that proved the rule.

"Jacques Kallis has done it pretty well, he's probably the only one that has got through. There's no doubt we are playing a lot at the moment.

"Andrew has been a superstar player for England. When they're in the middle of those glory years you have to manage them as well as you'd like and get a couple more years out of their career rather than grinding them into the ground too soon."

Focus required amid distractions

England v Australia, 2nd npower Test, Lord's

Match facts
Thursday, July 16 - Monday, July 20 2009
Start time 11.00 (10.00 GMT)

The series resumes after a nail-biting final hour in Cardiff in which England clung to the mightiest of draws after being dominated for most of the match. Since then time wasting and Andrew Flintoff's retirement have become the big issues, but the teams will not be focussing on the pre-match hype when the first ball is delivered.

They will be more intent on a brisk start and continuing their on-field battles in a contest that has already provided more heat than the St John's Wood tube station in summer. Australia enter the match disappointed they are not leading 1-0, while England are buoyant to be level. The visiting batsmen fired at Sophia Gardens, roaring to 674 for 6 before declaring, and their bowlers fell one wicket short of victory. The bowlers on both sides will be more excited by the conditions on offer in this game.

Nothing gets an Australian's neck prickling like the sight of Lord's and the players' baggy greens gain extra power whenever they bob through the Long Room. England's leaders can't understand why their team hasn't beaten their Ashes rivals in 75 years here. Another chapter will be added to the dusty pages of history this week.

Watch out for ...

Lord's is a place for the captains to star. Andrew Strauss missed out twice in the first Test, scoring 30 and 17, and needs to inspire his batting team-mates after they all gave away reasonable starts last week. The home of cricket is also Strauss's county ground for Middlesex, so he knows everything about the revered address. He has not scored a century here since 2006, but has reached triple figures three times on the way to averaging 58.17 in 11 matches.

Ricky Ponting, who has made 27 runs in three Test innings at Lord's, must stand up if his side is to maintain its intimidating batting intensity. In Cardiff Ponting breezed to 150, becoming one of four Australian century-makers, but the second Test will be played in different conditions and against a team that now remembers the last hour of batting, not the 181 overs of bowling.

Team news

Strauss wants to go with five bowlers - Ian Bell has been released from the squad - but his biggest worry is Flintoff's injured knee. Flintoff is bowing out of Tests at the end of the series and will be desperate to play while Steve Harmison is acting as his cover. Graham Onions was in the squad in Cardiff but didn't get a game, increasing his chances of appearing at Lord's, where two spinners are not a viable option.

England (possible) 1 Andrew Strauss (capt), 2 Alastair Cook, 3 Ravi Bopara, 4 Kevin Pietersen, 5 Paul Collingwood, 6 Matt Prior (wk), 7 Andrew Flintoff, 8 Stuart Broad, 9 Graeme Swann, 10 James Anderson, 11 Graham Onions.

Stuart Clark will be talked about but don't expect any changes to Australia's XI. Ponting should confirm the side later on Wednesday and it would be a shock if any of the players who pushed England last week are omitted. Brett Lee remains out with a stomach problem.

Australia (probable) 1 Simon Katich, 2 Phillip Hughes, 3 Ricky Ponting (capt), 4 Michael Hussey, 5 Michael Clarke, 6 Marcus North, 7 Brad Haddin (wk), 8 Mitchell Johnson, 9 Nathan Hauritz, 10 Peter Siddle, 11 Ben Hilfenhaus.

Pitch and conditions

Draws have been common recently at Lord's, but all the bowlers will feel this pitch is a raging seamer compared to the block of cement offered in Cardiff. There was an attractive green tinge on the surface on Tuesday and even though the grass was cut shorter on Wednesday, there is sure to be some life in it for the fast men. The same strip was used in 2005, although nobody is expecting a repeat of the 17 wickets that dropped on the opening day. The forecast is for sunny intervals on Thursday, rain on Friday and some showers over the weekend.