England salute Phil Hughes with pre-match tribute

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Tribute: Flowers and condolence messages are left at the Sydney Cricket Ground members entrance

Stephen Brenkley

28 November 2014

England and Sri Lanka will observe a minute’s silence tomorrow before the second one-day international to mark the death of Phillip Hughes.

There will not be much, if any, appetite for the match which follows.

The freak accident which cost Hughes his life after being hit by a ball while batting last Monday has shaken the game and its players to their core. Those of Sri Lanka and England are no different: some of them played with Hughes, many of them played against him, others never met him.

To a man, they are profoundly sad. They, like everybody else, cannot comprehend why this appalling tragedy should have happened. It is, they all know, only cricket.

In the grudging recognition that life must go on so, too, will the match at the Premadasa Stadium. There will be inevitably a slightly artificial air about proceedings.

The game will still have a competitive edge and when the teams are out there in front of a packed house the natural instinct of the professional sportsman may take over. But every stroke and every ball will be touched by the tragedy in Sydney.

Tough times: Alastaiir Cook is under pressure to justify his place in the ODI side

Perhaps bouncers will be bowled. No bowler will wish to be the first to unleash one on this day of all days.

It was a bouncer that hit Hughes in the neck as he went to play a hook shot and in a dreadful moment of improbability dissected the vertebral artery that leads to the brain. That it is an integral part of the game, a legitimate tactic which balances the contest, will matter not a jot for some time to come.

The World Cup for which this match and this series are acting as part of the teams’ preparation will seem even further away than February. Somehow the players must do their job.

Sri Lanka won the first match on Wednesday by 25 runs when Hughes was still fighting for his life in hospital. If it was a deserved victory, England came out of it with cause for mild optimism.

While the tourists made too many familiar errors against a team which had recently been hammered 5-0 in India and were thus vulnerable, there were long periods when they seriously looked like reaching a target of 318.

Moeen Ali’s innings of 119 was truly outstanding, one of the most alluring ever played for England in a one-day international. Its nature has served indirectly to fuel the continuing debate about the place in the side of the captain, Alastair Cook.

With the attractive alternative of Alex Hales having been jettisoned, Cook needs runs urgently. He looked anything like acquiring them two days ago.

Before being out lbw, he twice had lbw verdicts overturned by using the decision review system. It prompted some observers to wonder how he could miss the ball so often on such a true surface which was offering up runs at the other end.

Cook has fought through tough times before and the team are adamant that not only do they respect him but that they are behind him. With one half-century in 17 innings and seven defeats for his team in the last ten matches – and not much form before that – it is not a position that can be sustained for much longer.

Phil Hughes - Career Highlights

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The return to form (and to the side after being mysteriously dropped last summer) of Ravi Bopara was also exceedingly welcome. To have a player with 109 ODI caps striding out to bat at number seven should theoretically lift the spirits of any side.

England’s bowling at the start and, less culpably, at the end was awry. These are players gaining invaluable experience but the absence of Jimmy Anderson and Stuart Broad is being felt.

England salute Phil Hughes with pre-match tribute

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Phil Hughes - Career Highlights