St. Peter's: Wednesday gave us one-day cricket at its teeter-tottering, heart-stopping, all-encompassing best. Nary a twist was left to imagination nor a momentum switch left undone.

The Super Eight match between Sri Lanka and England gave us all that's great about the 50-overs format; in so doing, it showed us why it's so rare.

It wasn't a game of flawless cricket. That would have been too easy, too contrived.

Indeed Sri Lankan captain Mahela Jayawardene said his side made too many mistakes for comfort. But, it was the kind of match a World Cup, compromised from within, needed.

Incredible final over

The final over, itself, had turns entire one-day matches sometimes go without. Twelve runs off six balls, said the equation.

ON TARGET: Dilhara Fernando keeps it straight and simple to end Ravi Bopara's determined innings and leave England just short of Sri Lanka's total in their Super Eight match on Wednesday. — Photo: AP

Dilhara Fernando, Jayawardene's `go-to guy', bowled to Sajid Mahmood. A sneaked single allowed Ravi Bopara, who confessed he's never been in a situation like this with Essex, to scoop Fernando over short fine-leg.

"There was no strategy, I can't even remember what I was thinking," said Jayawardene. Yet, he retained his nerve to tell Fernando to keep it "in the right areas", and that if Bopara still hit him for four, so be it.

Start and stop

A couple through cover — not timed well enough — and two other singles had Bopara facing Fernando for three off the last ball.

Fernando ran up, and aborted. Bopara had edged away to the leg-side.

"I don't know what he was doing, didn't really think about it," said Bopara. "Maybe he wanted to see which way I'd go. Whatever, I couldn't stop him from stopping."

Fernando ran in again, Bopara edged away to the leg-side again. The biff over cover was windy; the stumps were disturbed. Fernando had kept his head.

Thus ended a match that course-corrected numerous times to get to that defining final over.

When England was on 133 for six in the 34th over, captain Michael Vaughan thought the side had "a long shot."

Either Vaughan is prescient beyond measure or his faith in his men yields to nothing. For, Paul Nixon and Bopara played without fuss to woodpecker away at the deficit.

Bopara survived a particularly harrowing time against Muttiah Muralitharan, and grew in confidence for the experience.

"I just had a chat with Nico (Nixon)," said the 21-year-old Bopara. "And we decided six runs an over was tough against the likes of Murali, so we'll score at four or five."

Upping the ante

The pair gradually upped the ante. Nixon, who reverse-swept indiscriminately, did the unthinkable.

In the 48th over, Muralitharan's last, the left-hander reverse-smacked a conventional off-break for six.

He followed it with a reverse-dab for four. The over leaked 13 and reduced the equation to 19 in 12.

"Nico plays that shot a lot," said Vaughan. "But, I never thought he'd reverse-sweep Murali for six. That was unbelievable, I mean, reverse-sweeping one of the greatest bowlers that ever lived for six."

Nixon's assault was gloriously subversive, for it countered Jayawardene's move to hold Muralitharan back.

The Sri Lankan captain had used Sanath Jayasuriya's left-arm spin to dry up runs.

Surprisingly, with a vanilla four-man infield — two in front, two behind the wicket — Jayawardene hoarded runs so he could go to his strikers in a pinch.

Lasith Malinga bowled as fine a penultimate over as you will see. Each of his slingers was fast, most of them plugged the block-hole. Only seven runs came — four of them to a nerveless Bopara steer-drive.

Crucially, Malinga had Nixon caught by his captain.

"I thought Mali bowled a brilliant 49th over that probably changed the game," said Jayawardene.

Kevin Pietersen and Ian Bell had earlier put England in position to chase down 236. Pietersen stooped into his drives and pulled Malinga rousingly.

But, Bell was run out in the kind of unfortunate manner that always seems to precipitate a collapse. Pietersen's drive filtered through Jayasuriya's fingers to catch Bell millimetres it seemed above the ground.

Pietersen was bedevilled by a doosra to be caught and bowled just after he had clatteringly swept Muralitharan. It had appeared the defining moment.

"That was a bitter blow, our star player dismissed by their star bowler," said Vaughan.

The descent was swift, and seemed irreversible till Nixon and Man of the Match Bopara came together.

SCOREBOARD

Sri Lanka: U. Tharanga c Pietersen b Flintoff 62, S. Jayasuriya b Mahmood 25, K. Sangakkara c Collingwood b Mahmood 17, M. Jayawardene c Joyce b Collingwood 56, C. Silva b Flintoff 23, T. Dilshan (run out) 5, R. Arnold c Joyce b Mahmood 20, C. Vaas c Collingwood b Flintoff 4, L. Malinga c Nixon b Mahmood 2, M. Muralitharan (not out) 2, D. Fernando (run out) 2, Extras (b-3, lb-6, nb-4, w-4) 17; Total (in 50 overs) 235.

Fall of wickets: 1-37, 2-69, 3-160, 4-175, 5-193, 6-215, 7-219, 8-226, 9-231.

England bowling: Anderson 10-1-38-0, Mahmood 9-0-50-4, Flintoff 10-0-35-3, Collingwood 10-0-44-1, Panesar 8-0-45-0, Vaughan 3-0-14-0.

England: E. Joyce lbw b Vaas 10, M. Vaughan c Sangakkara b Vaas 0, I. Bell (run out) 47, K. Pietersen c & b Muralitharan 58, P. Collingwood lbw b Fernando 14, A. Flintoff c Malinga b Fernando 2, R. Bopara b Fernando 52, P. Nixon c Jayawardene b Malinga 42, S. Mahmood (not out) 2, Extras (b-1, lb-1, nb-2, w-2) 6; Total (for eight wkts. in 50 overs) 233.

Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-11, 3- 101, 4-126, 5-133, 6-133, 7-220, 8-233.

Sri Lanka bowling: Vaas 8-1-45-1, Malinga 10-1-50-2, Fernando 9-0-41-3, Jayasuriya 8-0-31-0, Dilshan 5-1-16-0, Muralitharan 10-1-48-1.

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