Sports
Calm Root steers England to 5-wicket win over Sri Lanka
England take the lead in the series but will head to Lord’s later in the week
Joe Root’s gritty unbeaten 62 guided England to a five-wicket win in the first Test against Sri Lanka at Old Trafford on Saturday.
Set 205 to win, England were faltering at 56-2 when Root came into bat before tea on the fourth day. But together with Yorkshire team-mate Harry Brook (32) he shared a grinding partnership of 49 in 20 overs - a far cry from England’s ‘Bazball’ approach of recent years, although a still slow outfield made boundaries hard to come by.
The match, however, was back in the balance when Brook chipped a return catch to Jayasuriya, with England now 119-4 and still needing a further 86 runs to win. But Jamie Smith, fresh from a maiden Test century in the first innings, gave Root fine support with a brisk 39 during a stand of 64 as England went 1-0 up in a three-match series after finishing on 205-5.
It was another sign of the 24-year-old wicketkeeper’s admirable big-match temperament, Smith’s performances with the bat in Manchester minimising the impact of regular captain Ben Stokes’s absence with a series-ending torn hamstring.
That Sri Lanka took this match so deep into the fourth day was a testament to their resilience after they had collapsed to 6-3 on the opening morning.
They continued that fight in the field on Saturday before Smith broke the shackles with successive fours off left-arm spinner Prabath Jayasuriya before later pulling the tiring bowler for six.
By the time he was bowled by Asitha Fernando, England were in sight of victory at 183-5. Soon afterwards, Root went to fifty before ending the match with just his second four in 128 balls faced when he lofted Jayasuriya down the ground.
Earlier, Sri Lanka’s Kamindu Mendis scored his third hundred in just four Tests as he made 113 in a second-innings total of 326, having come in with his side in trouble at 95-4. Together with Dinesh Chandimal (79), he shared a seventh-wicket stand of 117 in 30 overs. England suffered a setback before play started on Saturday when express quick Mark Wood was ruled out with a thigh injury suffered while bowling late on Friday.
Sri Lanka resumed on 204-6, just 82 runs ahead, after Smith’s 111 had been the cornerstone of England’s first-innings 358.
Mendis, dropped on 39, was 56 not out and Chandimal 20 not out.
Mendis was quickly into his stride on Saturday, The 25-year-old left-hander, drove fast bowler Gus Atkinson through the covers and pulled him behind square for fours off successive deliveries.
Scoreboard
Sri Lanka 1st Innings 236
England 1st Innings 358
Sri Lanka 2nd Innings
(overnight: 204-6)
N. Madushka b Woakes 0D. Karunaratne c Brook b Wood 27K. Mendis c Smith b Atkinson 0A. Mathews c Potts b Woakes 65D. Chandimal c sub (Singh) b Potts 79D. de Silva lbw b Potts 11Ka. Mendis c Root b Atkinson 113M. Rathnayake c Duckett b Root 10P. Jayasuriya c Brook b Potts 5V. Fernando lbw b Woakes 0A. Fernando not out 0Extras (lb9, nb1, w6) 16Total (all out, 89.3 overs, 438 mins) 326Fall of wickets: 1-0 (Madushka), 2-1 (K Mendis), 3-52 (Karunaratne), 4-95 (De Silva), 5-173 (Mathews), 6-190 (Rathnayake), 7-307 (Ka Mendis), 8-321 (Jayasuriya), 9-322 (V Fernando), 10-326 (Chandimal)Bowling: Woakes 22-6-58-3; Atkinson 17-2-89-2; Bashir 20-0-77-0 (1nb); Wood 10.2-1-36-1; Potts 17.3-4-47-3 (2w); Root 1.4-0-5-1; Lawrence 1-0-5-0England 2nd Innings (target: 205)B. Duckett c K Mendis b A Fernando 11D. Lawrence lbw b Rathnayake 34O. Pope c De Silva b Jayasuriya 6J. Root not out 62H. Brook c and b Jayasuriya 32J. Smith b A Fernando 39C. Woakes not out 8Extras (lb5, nb3, w5) 13Total (5 wkts, 57.2 overs, 252 mins) 205Fall of wickets: 1-34 (Duckett), 2-56 (Pope), 3-70 (Lawrence), 4-119 (Brook), 5-183 (Smith)Bowling: V Fernando 8-0-46-0 (1w); A Fernando 12-1-25-2; Jayasuriya 25.2=4-98-2; Rathnayake 12-0-31-1 (3nb)Result: England won by five wicketsPlayer of the match: Jamie Smith (ENG)Series: England lead three-match series 1-0Remaining FixturesAugust 29-September 2: 2nd Test, Lord’sSeptember 6-10: 3rd Test, The Oval