Muralitharan awaits fate

NEW DELHI (AFP) - Sri Lanka will need 230 to win their World Cup quarter-final, and extend Muttiah Muralitharan's international career, after a dogged England batting display in Colombo on Saturday. Muralitharan, the leading wicket taker in one-day internationals with 530, is the only survivor of Sri Lanka's quarter-final win over England in 1996, but he will end his 19-year career once this tournament ends. Jonathan Trott (86) and Eoin Morgan (50), who was dropped three times, gave England's 229-6 much-needed backbone on a slow, flat R. Premadasa stadium pitch after they had been 31-2. Patience was the key word for Trott, who now has four half centuries in the tournament, as he negotiated the four-pronged Sri Lankan spin attack. But he was unable to lift the innings in the final overs as England managed just 23 in the batting power-play. Trott fell in the 49th over, caught off Muralitharan who finished with 2-54, after a 115-ball innings which featured just two boundaries. "The wicket is slow and taking turn," said Morgan. "It is a very competitive score. If we can bowl well, we have a very good chance." The winner will meet New Zealand in the first semi-final in Colombo on Tuesday.