Cricket: 'No-hopers' England trounce Sri Lanka

JOHANNESBURG - Written off as no-hopers in the build-up to this tournament, England managed to come out of last night's one-day international in fine fettle - not only had they scored a six-wicket win over Sri Lanka, one of the form horses in the competition, but they took the moral high ground when Andrew Strauss recalled all-rounder Angelo Mathews to the crease.

Strauss' sporting gesture came about after a collision in mid-pitch between Mathews and Graham Onions had left the batsman stranded.

Mathews had been turning for an ill-advised second run to midwicket - a run that would probably have been impossible at the best of times.

But he felt that the body contact had been decisive and remonstrated with the umpires. Although Billy Bowden and Aleem Dar agreed that the wicket should stand, Strauss consulted his team-mates and decided to overturn the decision.

As England's players gathered after their initial appeal, there must surely have been some discussion of last summer's debacle at the Oval, where Ryan Sidebottom virtually rugby-tackled New Zealand's Grant Elliott as he set off for a sharp single. The captain that day, Paul Collingwood, faced opprobrium for insisting that the run-out decision should stand.

But there was a marked difference between's Sidebottom's actions - deliberately stepping into the runner's path - and those of Onions', simply moving back to cover the bowler's stumps.

Perhaps Strauss felt that English cricket should not be guilty of the same mistake twice. While he may have been overly generous in his call, you had to admire his instincts. It was better he erred in that direction than the other, and he received a warm response from the crowd.

While the merits of the decision will be debated, it did not affect the outcome of the match, especially as Mathews lasted only three more balls before edging to the wicketkeeper.

England had the game under control for most of the night, after winning a useful toss and snatching four wickets inside the first six overs. Although Sri Lanka showed nerve and toughness to fight back from 17 for four to post a total of 212 all out, that was always a gettable total.

As England proved during the deadly grind of the NatWest Series, they can make 220s and 230s for fun; it is the 280-pluses that make their noses bleed.

Strauss must have been delighted to continue his run at the toss (which now stretches to 11 positive outcomes in 13). The surface had the sort of colour and pace that used to characterise the Wanderers in the 1980s, the days when the pitch here was known as "the green mamba". If England were to beat Sri Lanka these were the conditions in which to do it.

James Anderson, who can control the moving ball as well as anyone, lived up to his billing in an opening spell of 7-2-11-2. Finding venomous outswing off a length, he looked as if he might take a wicket with each delivery.

England's innings started nervously. After Strauss's gesture of goodwill earlier, he might have felt cheesed off that he was the subject of a huge - and unjustified - caught-behind appeal in the second over.

Strauss soon fell victim to a superb - and indisputable - one-handed catch at midwicket, whereupon England received a boost from a feisty Collingwood.

Opening his account with a six flicked over midwicket, he lifted the scoring rate with a series of booming boundaries. He won the match-award for his 46 from 51 balls.

Owais Shah took an age to get going but anchored the innings and Eoin Morgan finished off a commendable all-round effort with 62 not out. If England can beat South Africa tomorrow, they will be in the semi-finals.

Their win also makes New Zealand's clash with Sri Lanka tonight a vital contest - as all four sides in this group have had one win each.

"I didn't see it at the time because I was watching the ball, but I saw the replay and the umpires said, 'It's up to you if you want to call him back'," said Strauss about the Mathews incident.

"My feeling was that it just didn't look right. I thought he would have got back for the two quite comfortably if they hadn't collided. Other captains would be quite within their rights to not call him back, but after Paul Collingwood was castigated for that a couple of years ago, I decided it wasn't the right thing to do."