Alec Stewart won his grudge battle with Sri Lankan Arjuna Ranatunga at Lords yesterday, out-thinking and out-playing his bitter rival during an eight-wicket win for England in the opening match of the 1999 World Cup.
Stewart marshalled his team impeccably as defending champions Sri Lanka, sent in to bat in overcast conditions, were dismissed for 204 with eight balls of their 50 overs remaining. Then he cracked 88 as the hosts cruised home in the group A encounter with 19 balls to spare in front of a 30,000 capacity crowd.
Graeme Hick helped his captain to pick off the bowling, ending with 73 not out after putting on 125 with Stewart.
England's other hero was leftarm pace bowler Alan Mullally, who found movement in the air and off a moist pitch to finish with four wickets for 37.
Ranatunga, whose relationship with Stewart is frosty at best, had promised a string of "surprise tactics" before the match, but it was Stewart who did not put a foot wrong.
His captaincy, so often derided as lacking in imagination, was first-class as he kept up the pressure on the Sri Lankans.
England attacked throughout and were still using two or three slips late into the innings.
Sri Lanka's openers had made 42 in good time before Mullally came on as first change and sparked a collapse that saw five wickets fall for 23 runs.
First he dismissed Roshan Mahanama who hit across the line and skied the ball off a leading edge. Hick took the catch running back from the slips.
Mullally's next two victims were Sanath Jayasuriya - the star of the 1996 tournament - and Aravinda de Silva, who made a match-winning century in the final three years ago.
Jayasuriya survived one chance before edging to Hick, while de Silva fenced a catch to Graham Thorpe at first slip.
Soon Sri Lanka were 65 for five but Romesh Kaluwitharana - normally a pinch-hitter, but batting at seven yesterday - fought back with a string of lavish boundaries, including two fine square drives off the expensive Darren Gough.
He passed 50 off 52 balls. Ranatunga joined in with a straight six but then, after making 32 in an 87-run partnership, he was caught in the gully to give seamer Mark Ealham his second wicket.
Kaluwitharana's departure for 57 soon afterwards, with the score on 155 for seven, was the final nail in the coffin, leaving the tailenders to scrape their way through the final 13 overs. Eight of Sri Lanka's 10 wickets fell to catches within the slip cordon.
Captain Stewart said after the match: "I haven't scored the runs I wanted to at the start of 1999, but I back my ability. I felt comfortable, and hopefully this will stand me in good stead for the rest of the tournament.
"It would have been nice to have been not out at the end, but we've won the game. The plan was to play well and see it through, and not leave it to anyone else, and if you are in, you make the most of it, build partnerships and that's how you create good totals."
