England began the summer with a powerful performance against an insipid Sri Lankan attack. They ended the first day at Lord's on 318 for 3. Read what the papers had to say about it.
Alastair Cook scored 89 in his first Test at home and Rick Broadbent pays tribute in The Times. And Steve James praises himfor the way he played Muttiah Muralitharan.
Forget the swashbuckling strokeplay that was the hallmark of England’s assault on the front pages last summer. Cook is old school, the sort of man who plays what Boycott would call “proper creekit”.
"The open-topped bus ride around Trafalgar Square was a joyous moment in history, but if these things are graded by magnitude of achievement, England's reward for beating Sri Lanka will be a gentle spin in a milk float down Marylebone Road." Martin Johnson sums it up in The Telegraph.
Boycs has the first and last word. "My mum could play this lot" is the signal that Boycott regards a series as a non-event. It was not what the Sri Lankans would have wanted to hear, says David Hopps in The Guardian.
It was not quite what Channel 5 would have wanted either as he joined their team for their first day of Test highlights. But it might have been worse: the Bangladeshis suffered at the hands of his granny, batting with a stick of rhubarb.
