Together Standing Tall

OK, so in case you hadn't noticed I am going to use obscure song lyrics as titles for any article relating to the international summer of cricket just to amuse myself, if nobody else. This week's title relates to the selection of an Irishman in the only spot that was genuinely up for grabs in the England Test team. More on that in a bit. Let's first look at Sri Lanka's final warm-up game before the series starts in Cardiff on Thursday:

Tour match (Derby): Sri Lanka 266 (Randiv 76*, Dernbach 5-44) and 448 fo (Paranavitana 125, Dilshan 117, Samaraweera 74, Dernbach 4-94) beat England Lions 493-8d (Morgan 193, Patel 119, Taylor 76) and 183 (Pradeep 4-29) by 38 runs

It says a lot about the character of the touring team that they were able to get themselves up for a tour match in unfamiliar conditions after being asked to follow-on. Five players were newly arrived from the IPL, although only Suraj Randiv had any real impact with the bat first time around. They also made good use of a howling gale on the final day to complete the comeback - the seamers running in downwind and running through a strong young lineup, whilst Randiv toiled admirably into the wind at the other end - he is a good honest cricketer, unlikely to oust Mendis and Herath for the Tests. Howling wind aside however, the attack continued to look placid first up on a good batting deck, although once again the Sri Lankan openers were able to cash in as well as the home batsmen. Nuwan Pradeep looked the quickest of the bunch, although he has now had to fly home with a knee complaint, whilst fellow spearhead Dilhara Fernando is also struggling with a nagging problem. Farveez Maharoof has been drafted in from Lancashire. Big guns Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene failed to find any real runs on this occasion but you would never bet against them scoring heavily when the pressure is really on, particularly when you consider that no England bowler has dismantled teams as expected on the county circuit. It will be interesting to see how they go at the SWALEC Stadium - particularly as it is probably the closest to the slow and flat wickets that they will be familiar with.

From England's point of view, this game was always going to be a battle between Eoin Morgan and Ravi Bopara for the spot vacated by Paul Collingwood after the Ashes. Morgan scored big runs, Bopara did not, so on the face of it, the decision seemed a simple one. However, it cannot have been taken lightly - Bopara has scored a couple of hundreds for Essex already this summer and has succeeded with his reliable medium pace bowling, whereas Morgan has been lining his pockets in the IPL. Questions have inevitably been asked about Morgan's commitment to Test match cricket, but to my mind these are irrelevant - his temperament is unquestionably better than Bopara's at the highest level. So Morgan gets the first shot to cement his place in the side. Bopara will continue to breathe down his neck in domestic cricket, as will James Taylor and Lions' captain James Hildreth. Steven Finn is the other Lion named in the squad but he only took 3 wickets in the match and was expensive, meaning he will probably be the man to carry the drinks in favour of Chris Tremlett. Tremlett's Surrey team-mate Jade (he must hate his parents) Dernbach was the pick of the attack here and he will want to continue his form and push for recognition later in the summer. However, the starting XI pretty much picks itself for now with Tim Bresnan injured, and we know all about what those guys can do - we will wait and see how the Test pans out.

Finally a quick word on Samit Patel - I saw him bowl in a Championship match for Notts against Sussex recently, where he comfortably outbowled Graeme Swann in the spin department. His fitness problems have been well documented in the past but he now finally appears to have reached a level sufficient to be considered for this match and he didn't disappoint with a typically aggressive hundred. In light of Michael Yardy's health problems, I wouldn't be surprised to see him line up with Swann in the ODIs in June.

RM