England’s Gary Ballance hits ton after ditching nurdle against Sri Lanka
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Version 0 of 1. Gary Ballance saved Alastair Cook and England from their worst nightmare with a maiden Test century to prevent a complete batting flop in front of Kevin Pietersen. Another personal failure left Cook to watch from the balcony outside the home dressing room in the pavilion as Pietersen swigged beer with his mates in a corporate box in the Lord’s Grandstand, only a couple of balconies down from the one occupied by Giles Clarke and other leading officials of the England & Wales Cricket Board. The captain and the chairman watched wickets fall steadily through the afternoon session, and when Matt Prior was dismissed shortly after tea England were 121 for six, only 243 ahead, leaving Sri Lanka in with a real chance of their first Test win at Lord’s. But the debutant Chris Jordan joined Ballance, a 24-year-old playing in only his second Test, in a seventh-wicket stand of 78 in 22 overs that lifted the pressure. England closed on 267 for eight with a lead of 389. Ballance, who had taken almost three hours to reach his first Test 50, accelerated dramatically in the closing overs, moving from 82 to 97 in six balls and then reaching three figures in the last over of the day by slog-sweeping Rangana Herath into the Grandstand for six – pretty much under the nose of where Pietersen had been sitting for most of the day, with his highest-profile cheerleader, Piers Morgan, in a box owned by Amit Bhatia, the vice-chairman of Queens Park Rangers. “With one over to go I needed three and I didn’t want to nurdle around with singles.” Ballance, who was born in Zimbabwe but completed his education at Harrow, became the second Yorkshire batsman to reach three figures in the match after Joe Root’s double-century in the first innings. “When I saw it go over the rope [for six], it was just a great feeling. “My parents and my brother flew over from Zimbabwe a few days ago. I’m just delighted to get a hundred here at Lord’s.” Pietersen, who will be based in London for most of the summer after signing a deal to play Twenty20 cricket with Surrey, had clearly been determined to enjoy his day rather than make any points about England’s decision to move on without him after the winter’s Ashes debacle. “Want to see SL out 460 & ENG bat positively to a 380 lead then declare...entertain today pls, Cook’s men!” he had tweeted before the start. He later added: “Drinking beers at Lord’s – this is a whole lot of fun.” There was no criticism from Pietersen of Cook’s failure to deliver an early declaration, although his companion Piers Morgan referred to Cook as “Captain Weasel” on his Twitter feed, and Shane Warne was critical of England’s approach in his Sky commentary on the evening session. |