SOUTHAMPTON (Sri Lanka won toss): England beat Sri Lanka by 49 runs on D/L method
ANDREW FLINTOFF propelled England into the semi-finals of the ICC Champions Trophy on Saturday with an innings of sufficient power, poise and intelligence to issue a warning in capital letters to the Australia team that will confront him at Edgbaston tomorrow. Of the three one-day international hundreds that he has scored for England this season, this one, reached off his 89th ball, was the most impressive and significant and a repeat tomorrow would send a tremor through Australia from Darwin to the Dandenongs.
Immediately it should be added that Australia would be unlikely to drop a slip catch early in his innings as comfortable as the one that the normally reliable Mahela Jayawardena missed off Chaminda Vaas on Friday when Flintoff had scored only one. He has needed some luck here and there, perhaps, but with almost every game he has played this season England’s central pillar has added another cubit to his stature. Mature judgment applied to colossal strength and rare natural talent have moulded a giant.
Nine fours and three sixes in cool, blustery weather, on a pitch that may never have been difficult but always gave bowlers some hope, drew much of the optimism from Sri Lanka’s varied, generally tidy attack after they had started the second phase of a rain-marred match with some good, aggressive work in the field. Much like Rahul Dravid at Edgbaston yesterday, but with experience of 161 fewer internationals to draw upon, Flintoff played himself in and bided his time with apparently limitless patience before changing gear. When he did so, the result was spectacular even by his own standards. His first fifty, with five measured fours, came from 69 balls; his second from only 20.
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The post-horn sounded when he pulled a leg-break from Upal Chandana for six in a 45th over that cost 22 runs. There followed an extraordinary, bottom-handed scoop over extra-cover off Vaas, followed by a controlled steer for four to backward point as Vaas, perforce, altered his length, and then a straight six of astonishing power off Nuwan Zoysa.
Flintoff had the cool, confident, bustling Paul Collingwood for company after Marcus Trescothick had been brilliantly run out by Tillekeratne Dilshan, flicking the ball onto the stumps off his own bowling with the opportunism of a natural predator. Collingwood played sufficiently well to make 39 of a partnership of 94 before pulling to the boundary’s edge at mid-wicket.
England’s total of 251 was always likely to be too demanding. Steve Harmison’s nasty bounce off a length gained him two wickets in his first three overs and when Darren Gough picked up a sharp catch above his head at mid-off to remove the dangerous Sanath Jayasuriya, giving the inevitable Flintoff the first of his two wickets, it became almost certain that England would win. The return of the rain made sure.
It was a shame that Flintoff’s efforts were watched by only some 5,000 of the 15,000 who bought tickets and attended the rain-affected first day. Appalled by the failure of the park-and-ride arrangements made by Hampshire to cater for their biggest crowd on Friday, the majority stayed away. Thousands had been left queueing in heavy rain for buses that came only infrequently from a distant car park. It added insult that a £5 charge was added to tickets costing a minimum of £35. Rod Bransgrove and Nick Pike, Hampshire’s chairman and managing director, are well aware of the unhappiness of many who attended and plan to review arrangements before the semi-final between West Indies and Pakistan on Wednesday.
SEMI-FINALS
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AUSTRALIA v ENGLAND
Tomorrow (Edgbaston)
WEST INDIES v PAKISTAN
Wednesday (Southampton)
FINAL: Saturday (the Oval)