Sri Lanka looking down the barrel

Jamie Smith soaks in celebration of his maiden Test hundred

 Dinesh Chandimal winces in pain after being hit on thumb by Mark Wood

• Allow England to get ahead with lacklustre display

 MANCHESTER: In another eventful day of cricket Sri Lanka lost their grip on the first cricket Test against England and were staring at defeat at the end of the third day at Old Trafford, Friday.  

After two excellent days, everything went awry for Sri Lanka on day three, the most telling effect being the loss of Dinesh Chandimal who was building up a partnership with Angelo Mathews when he took a blow on his right thumb with his score on 10 off a brutish delivery from Mark Wood. Thankfully for Sri Lanka, X’rays revealed that he had not suffered any broken bones only a bruise of an old injury. He was given an injection and came to bat at the fall of the sixth wicket when Milan Rathnayake, the first innings hero fell to Joe Root when he holed out to mid-off for 10.

Sri Lanka trailing by 122 runs on the first innings ended the day on 204-6, an overall lead of 82 with four wickets in hand and two days of the Test remaining.

At the wickets were Kamindu Mendis on a defiant 56* off 109 balls (6 fours, 1 six) and Chandimal on 20* off 28 balls (1 four). A lot will depend on this pair if Sri Lanka are to set England a challenging target to chase in the fourth innings.

England lost Wood midway through the 56th over when he had to leave the field and Root brought on to complete the over, picked up the wicket of Rathnayake. Strangely enough when Wood was forced to leave the field, the batsman whom he injured, Chandimal walked out to bat the remaining few overs for the day. The morning was a disastrous session for Sri Lanka who didn’t show the intent they displayed in the first two days and allowed England to get back into the game. To begin with, the start was delayed by Sri Lanka not having their fielding gear for the short leg fieldsman. In the first hour’s play Sri Lanka gave the impression that they had not given any thought to what they were planning to do as they kept on switching bowlers. Their body language was poor and they were lethargic and lacklustre, and the fielding sloppy. As a result, Jamie Smith helped himself to some easy runs.

The morning was all England’s as the hugely talented Smith went on to reach his maiden Test century off 136 balls (7 fours, 1 six) when he nudged Rathnayake through midwicket for a couple. He had missed getting one in the last Test against the West Indies at Edgbaston when he was dismissed for 95. It was a well-crafted innings, very calm and compact in defence and he richly deserved the standing ovation he received from the crowd and his team mates.

Sri Lanka finally broke the seventh wicket stand of 66 when Atkinson (20) tickled one down the leg side to wicket-keeper Chandimal to give debutant Rathnayake his maiden Test wicket.

Wood hit a powerful 22 off 13 balls (3 fours, 1 six) taking England past the 350-run mark before the two Fernandos, Asitha and Vishwa brought the innings to an end with a wicket apiece. Asitha ended up with four wickets, Vishwa two and Prabath Jayasuriya three.

Trailing by 122 runs, Sri Lanka’s batsmen had their work cut out for them when they lost two early wickets to leave themselves at 1-2. They were 6-3 in the first innings. Nishan Madushka shouldered arms with a half stride forward to Chris Woakes and made an absolute mockery of himself when he had his stumps rattled. Kusal Mendis went edging a catch behind the wicket off Gus Atkinson. Both batsmen made ducks.

This brought the two senior players together Dimuth Karunaratne (with 92 Tests behind him) and Mathews (110), but they could not continue for long for after a stand of 51, Karunaratne was done in by Wood’s first delivery getting an inside edge onto his body to lob a catch to slips.  

Not only did they lose Chandimal and Karunaratne but also the crucial wicket of skipper Dhananjaya de Silva in the afternoon session when he was trapped lbw for 11 on the pull by Matthew Potts giving the bowler his first wicket in the match. Potts was rather unlucky later in the day to see Mathews dropped at slip by Joe Root at 65 and Kamindu Mendis by Gus Atkinson at backward point at 39 off successive overs.

Both batsmen dug in and produced a resourceful partnership only to see the ball go out of shape and the replaced ball suddenly starting to do something a lot in terms of swing, which meant that they had to start all over again like. The ball change led to Mathews’ dismissal for a solid 65 off 145 balls (2 fours, 1 six) ending a defiant stand of 78 with Kamindu Mendis.