CRICKET/One-day series: The eco hotel to which England made a sheepish return last night promises a relaxing rural escape from the pressures of the outside world, but relieving the stress sounded a challenge too far after their second lowest total in one-day international history brought a dispiriting start to their tour of Sri Lanka.
This was Dambulla's first international under lights, but England's stumble to 88 all out, only two runs more than their all-time low - against Australia at Old Trafford two years ago - was no floodlit misadventure.
England had won the toss and batted on a cloudy afternoon but they never remotely came to terms with a crabby, slow pitch that did not quite possess the devils that Sri Lanka's players had feared. The average first-innings score in the short history of the Rangiri Stadium had been 166.
This Sri Lankan attack bore two debutant seam bowlers, Dinusha Fernando and Nuwan Kulasekara, so unknown that they do not even figure on the video playbacks the England players carry on their laptops.
England managed only four boundaries; Sri Lanka's turbocharged openers, Sanath Jayasuriya and Romesh Kaluwitharana, had four boundaries in the first 15 balls. It was all over within 13.5 overs and Sri Lanka will have saved a fortune on the floodlight bill.
As England capitulated, a Sri Lankan band jubilantly played Indunil Gangulal, which translates loosely as "our rich rivers are filled with water". It was an apt image in a country where the monsoon is leaving reluctantly and where England must hope that Colombo is spared its evening rains in the two remaining matches this week.
So now we can confirm the true value of five weeks in Bangladesh: precisely zero. England did not overstress the importance of their clean sweep in Tests and one-day internationals, but in Sri Lanka's cultural triangle their preparations here were exposed as inadequate.
They arrived in Sri Lanka only on Thursday night; their warm-up amounted to one abandoned match and they even delayed their journey to Dambulla by 24 hours for a host of complex official explanations that did not, under any circumstances, involve watching the rugby.
Only Paul Collingwood, with 31 from 96 balls, scrapped with much purpose, just as Graham Thorpe had been England's only saving grace with the bat in defeat here two years ago. Andrew Strauss failed on his debut and Michael Vaughan's batting form as captain continues to perplex.
At 67 for nine England's lowest total loomed, only for Ashley Giles and James Anderson to spare them that with a last-wicket stand of 21. Never has a loosener from Sanath Jayasuriya, which brought them level with their previous lowest, been so welcome.
At the end of the match, to celebrate the floodlights, Dambulla also staged a rugby union festival. But the crowd, sated with the cricket, did not stay to watch. Now that's a country with decent sporting taste . . .
Guardian Service
