Ignore Bashir grubber – this pitch is a belter and sloppy Sri Lanka wasted it

The late Bob Woolmer was a coach unafraid of challenging the norm. He was one of the first to push for computer analysis, to encourage the reverse-sweep and much more, not least when attempting an on-field radio link-up with his South Africa captain, Hansie Cronje.
So when Woolmer brought his Pakistan team here to Old Trafford in 2006, it was little surprise that he attempted something slightly different to combat the steepling bounce of the England attack and Steve Harmison in particular.
Early in the tour in London he bought a slab of granite with a marble top and before the Manchester match he placed it in the nets so that he and others could hurl balls that would rear up at the batsmen with extravagant bounce.
I can find no evidence that before this match Sri Lanka were adopting a similar practice, but maybe Kusal Mendis will wish that they had, because the 93mph ball from Mark Wood that dismissed him was an absolute brute that leapt from only just short of a length.
Of course, since that match in 2006 the square here at Emirates Old Trafford has been turned 90 degrees from its east-west direction to north-south (it was done so in readiness for the 2011 season), primarily to avoid batsmen having the setting sun directly in their eyes in the evening session.
It means that the players can now watch the action from behind the bowler’s arm, rather than side-on, where pace is always exaggerated. In the old pavilion — near to which James Anderson, after whom that end is now named, was afforded a special presentation at lunchtime — I have seen many a Glamorgan tailender quivering at the prospect of facing the always hostile Pakistan left-armer Wasim Akram, who was such a wonderful overseas player for Lancashire for so many years. Pace has always thrilled here.
It is a close contest with the Oval but, in my opinion, this is still the best pitch in the country, offering something to everyone but particularly the opportunity for those bowlers that make the difference in Test cricket — in other words fast bowlers and high-quality spinners — to exhibit their skills to the full. It is no dobbers’ delight, as are so many county pitches.
There was some sun at the toss here but thereafter it was a day as grey as the schoolboys’ trousers that are being bought around the country for the start of a new term, with the floodlights needed to ensure that play continued and spinners compulsory by the end. But it was still a fascinating day’s play, with the pitch certainly playing its part.
Yes, there was a horrible grubber from Shoaib Bashir that snared Dinesh Chandimal leg-before, inevitably prompting Sky Sports to show again, to much merriment, the couple of similarly unplayable balls that the commentator Nasser Hussain once endured in his career against West Indies’ Carl Hooper and South Africa’s Paul Adams.
But that ball to Chandimal was an exception. There are often cracks in the surface here that explain as much, as well as the odd ball that keeps a little low, for a while planting demons in the batsmen’s heads until the realisation — as demonstrated here so ably by the captain Dhananjaya de Silva and debutant Milan Rathnayake — that it is no snake-pit and that runs can indeed be gathered.
There was some turn for Bashir and indeed for De Silva at the day’s end, prompting Vic Marks, who just happened once to bowl off spinners for Somerset and England, to wander from the radio boxes into the press box and announce: “Ah, this is such a good pitch.”
• Mike Atherton: Sri Lanka’s wagging tail takes gloss off England’s near-perfect day
Which was obviously the swift conclusion reached over 30 years ago by the late Shane Warne when producing his “ball of the century” to Mike Gatting on this ground, but even if Bashir persuaded De Silva to tickle to leg slip, there were runs in this pitch, which will have irked the Sri Lankan top order no end.
From six for three after only seven overs is a mountain to climb for any team, and there was extreme sloppiness written over two of those dismissals in particular, with the opener Nishan Madushka slashing wildly without any transfer of weight towards the ball from Chris Woakes, and Angelo Mathews inexplicably padding up to the same bowler.
• Simon Wilde: Pope passes tactical test – but need to work on his reviews
The left-handed Dimuth Karunaratne may have been unfortunate that his top edge from a hook at Gus Atkinson did not fly over the wicketkeeper Jamie Smith, with the ball also seaming away from him, but it was the first short ball of the morning and he may have been better served having a look first.
Batting first here is always the correct call, because even though rain scuppered England’s chances of doing so last year against Australia, no side have ever won a Test on this ground having inserted the opposition, but Sri Lanka simply did not make good enough use of that toss and another excellent cricket pitch.