England march towards historic whitewash

England celebrate after Jack Leach's successful review

By Madushka Balasuriya

At stumps on day 3 in Colombo, England were six wickets away from securing their first ever Test series whitewash away from home, a feat built on the back of yet another trademark counterattacking 64 from Jos Buttler, and a now mandatory rearguard effort from their tail. 

Sri Lanka meanwhile were still 274 runs off their target on 53/4 with Kusal Mendis and nightwatchman Lakshan Sandakan at the crease.

The home side for their part will rue several missed opportunities, after having seemingly clawed their way back into the game with four early wickets in the morning session. Dilruwan Perera, on the way to his eighth Test five-wicket haul, had been in the thick of Sri Lanka’s early offence, trapping Keaton Jennings plumb in front off the first delivery of the day and then doing the same to opening partner Rory Burns a short while later. 

First innings centurion Jonny Bairstow and captain Joe Root would soon follow back to the dressing room and by the end of 14th over England had lost four wickets for just 39 runs - still just 135 runs ahead. But as has been the case throughout the series, this England side do not go down easy.

Buttler along with Ben Stokes then proceeded to put on what is likely to be a match-winning 89-run partnership. Of the two, Buttler was the more assured; eschewing his favoured sweep from the first innings, he chose to skip down the wicket time and again to devastating effect. He would eventually be stumped down the leg side owing to the same tactic but by then his work was more or less done.

But while Buttler’s innings was assured, Stokes’ was filled with good fortune. Lakshan Sandakan had Stokes dismissed twice - once caught at short extra cover and once caught at slip - only for the umpire to call back the batsman on both occasions after replays showed the Sri Lankan wrist spinner had bowled a front foot no-ball. 

By the time Stokes was eventually out caught in the deep off Dilruwan Perera for a 63-ball 42, England’s lead had ballooned beyond the 200-mark. Cameo innings from several of England’s lower order batsmen would then see Sri Lanka eventually set an SSC record chase of 327 to win.

In their reply, Sri Lanka’s top order crumbled. Moeen Ali did the bulk of the damage, taking out the two openers - Gunathilaka poking at one spinning away from him to slip while Karunaratne played for turn that wasn’t coming and found his stumps rattled.

Dhananjaya De Silva followed shortly after, given out LBW on review off Jack Leach, before a brain fade from Angelo Mathews in what would be the final over before stumps saw him fatally hook a short delivery from Ben Stokes into the diving hands of Stuart Broad.

In the end, the defining image of the match, possibly the series, is of Ben Stokes, bowling the final ball of the day, performing a swift 180-turn from his delivery stride and haring back towards the unguarded long-on boundary to put a full-blooded dive and save three runs for his side. While encapsulating everything good about this England outfit, the fact that Sri Lanka only settled for a single speaks volumes too.