Lasith Embuldeniya continued his dominance over the England openers on day 2 of the 2nd Test between Sri Lanka England, but Joe Root saved the day once again for the visitors with a fluent 67* as England ended the day on 98/2.
Embuldeniya wasted no time with the new ball, trapping Dom Sibley in front for 0 to give Sri Lanka the start they wanted after Niroshan Dickwella and Dilruwan Perera had fought hard to help Sri Lanka to a competitive total of 381 in the 1st innings. The left arm spinner then sent Sibley’s opening partner Zak Crawley back to the pavilion as well, becoming the 1st bowler to dismiss both openers for single digit scores in 3 consecutive Test innings.
However, Sri Lanka’s plans to dominate the visitors were thwarted by skipper Root and Jonny Bairstow, who rescued them from 5/2 with an unbeaten partnership of 93. Root looked in a league of his own, attacking the spinners with the sweep, much like he did during England’s last tour of the island and scored at a swift strike-rate of 87 to keep England in the game.
Earlier in the day, Sri Lanka lost Angelo Mathews in just the 2nd over of the day and it was that man James Anderson once again with the breakthrough. Anderson moved the ball just enough to clip Mathews on the pad and went up in appeal only to be turned down by Umpire Kumar Dharmasena. However, with the ball carrying to Jos Buttler behind the wickets, England skipper Joe Root decided to gamble on a review and what a review it turned out to be. Snicko showed the ball taking Mathews’ edge and that was that for the centurion as he walked back with a well-fought 110.
Debutant Ramesh Mendis didn’t last long at the crease, glancing one down the leg side where Buttler grabbed another difficult chance before Dickwella and Perera put on 89 runs for the 7th wicket.
Overnight batsman Dickwella, who has taken a lot of slack over the past few months, put away his expansive shots and ground his way to a half century and looked like he would finally get to that elusive 100-run mark before he was dismissed by Anderson, playing a loose shot to wide mid-off.
Perera continued to strike the ball well and was the last man dismissed as Sri Lanka finished with 381.
Anderson was the pick of the bowlers for the tourists as he claimed his best figures in Asia, 6/40.
Day 3 will see England resume with Root (67*) and Bairstow (24*) at the crease, still 283 runs in deficit.
 and Dilruwan Perera (21*) putting on a steady partnership after the loss of 2 early wickets.){kind=link}