Curran and Buttler help England to 285

By Shamseer Jaleel reporting from Pallekelle

England recovered with the help of fine half-centuries by Jos Buttler (63) and Sam Curran (64) plus some drop catches by Sri Lanka to score a commanding 285 in their Second Test encounter, which commenced at the Pallekelle International Cricket Stadium yesterday.

England skipper Joe Root won the toss and elected to bat first on a spinner-friendly wicket at Pallekelle yesterday. England went in with an unchanged side with the Sri Lankans making two changes. Injured Chandimal was replaced by Roshen Silva while Herath’s retirement gave space for Malinda Pushpakumara.

England was soon in trouble when Keaton Jennings edged one into the glows of Niroshan Dickwella off seamer and skipper Suranga Lakmal. 

England made steady runs, lost regular wickets, and no batsman other than Rory Burns (43) and Jos Butler (38 not out) got into big scores during session one. At lunch, they were at 120 for 4.

After lunch, England’s progress slowed down with only Jos Butler getting runs. Moeen Ali, too, departed soon for 10. Butler steadied the English innings with some delightful strokes. Ben Foakes, who made a magnificent debut century during the Test at Galle, could manage only 19. These two wickets of Moeen and Foakes put England into deep trouble at 165 for 6. 

Butler, who played a classic knock, threw his wicket away at 63. He survived an early scare when he tried to loft spinner Pushpakumara over long on. But his miscalculation ended in just recovering his ground before the bail was taken off. He stroked seven boundaries in his breezy knock. England took tea at 212 for 7, slowing down their pace compared to session one. Adhil Rashid was confidently batting at 29. They could score only 92 runs for the loss of three more wickets.

Soon after the resumption of play during session three, Rashid who put on 45 valuable runs with Sam Curran losing his wicket for 31. England did not give up their accumulation of the runs. For the last wicket, Curran and Anderson put on another valuable 60 runs partnership to end on a good recovery total of 285. Curran stroked a half-century (64) inclusive of six huge sixes and one boundary. Spinners did the majority of the damage by taking nine out of the 10 wickets to fall on the initial day. Dilruwan (4), Pushpakumara (3), and Dhananjaya (2) took the wickets for Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka ended day one on 26 for the loss of Kaushal Silva’s wicket. England last won a series in Sri Lanka back in 2001 under Naseer Hussain, and their first series win anywhere in Asia was in 2012.