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Root rescues England after Embuldeniya’s double-strike

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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.

Result


Sri Lanka
381/10 (139.3) & 126/10 (35.5)

England
344/10 (116.1) & 164/4 (43.3)

Batsmen R B 4s 6s SR
Lahiru Thirimanne c Jos Buttler b James Anderson 43 95 5 0 45.26
Kusal Perera c Joe Root b James Anderson 6 14 1 0 42.86
Oshada Fernando b James Anderson 0 4 0 0 0.00
Angelo Mathews c Jos Buttler b James Anderson 110 238 11 0 46.22
Dinesh Chandimal lbw b Mark Wood 52 121 4 1 42.98
Niroshan Dickwella c Jack Leach b James Anderson 92 144 10 0 63.89
Ramesh Mendis c Jos Buttler b Mark Wood 0 16 0 0 0.00
Dilruwan Perera c Jack Leach b Sam Curran 67 170 8 1 39.41
Suranga Lakmal c Zak Crawley b James Anderson 0 2 0 0 0.00
Lasith Embuldeniya c Joe Root b Mark Wood 7 33 0 1 21.21
Asitha Fernando not out 0 10 0 0 0.00


Extras 4 (b 0 , lb 2 , nb 1, w 1, pen 0)
Total 381/10 (139.3 Overs, RR: 2.73)
Fall of Wickets 1-7 (4.1) Kusal Perera, 2-7 (4.5) Oshada Fernando, 3-76 (26.2) Lahiru Thirimanne, 4-193 (68.6) Dinesh Chandimal, 5-232 (88.6) Angelo Mathews, 6-243 (91.6) Ramesh Mendis, 7-332 (120.4) Niroshan Dickwella,

Bowling O M R W Econ
James Anderson 29 13 40 6 1.38
Sam Curran 18.3 3 60 1 3.28
Jack Leach 38 5 119 0 3.13
Mark Wood 28 4 84 3 3.00
Dominic Bess 26 2 76 0 2.92
Batsmen R B 4s 6s SR
Dominic Sibley lbw b Lasith Embuldeniya 0 14 0 0 0.00
Zak Crawley c Lahiru Thirimanne b Lasith Embuldeniya 5 24 0 0 20.83
Jonathan Bairstow c Oshada Fernando b Lasith Embuldeniya 28 73 5 0 38.36
Joe Root run out (Oshada Fernando) 186 309 18 0 60.19
Dan Lawrence c Lahiru Thirimanne b Lasith Embuldeniya 3 21 0 0 14.29
Jos Buttler c Oshada Fernando b Ramesh Mendis 55 95 7 0 57.89
Sam Curran c Lahiru Thirimanne b Lasith Embuldeniya 13 43 0 1 30.23
Dominic Bess c Lahiru Thirimanne b Lasith Embuldeniya 32 95 4 0 33.68
Mark Wood c Lahiru Thirimanne b Lasith Embuldeniya 1 6 0 0 16.67
Jack Leach lbw b Dilruwan Perera 1 17 0 0 5.88
James Anderson not out 4 5 1 0 80.00


Extras 16 (b 8 , lb 3 , nb 5, w 0, pen 0)
Total 344/10 (116.1 Overs, RR: 2.96)
Bowling O M R W Econ
Suranga Lakmal 16 7 31 0 1.94
Lasith Embuldeniya 42 6 137 7 3.26
Asitha Fernando 10 2 31 0 3.10
Dilruwan Perera 32.1 4 86 1 2.68
Ramesh Mendis 16 1 48 1 3.00
Batsmen R B 4s 6s SR
Kusal Perera lbw b Jack Leach 14 25 2 0 56.00
Lahiru Thirimanne c Zak Crawley b Jack Leach 13 33 0 0 39.39
Oshada Fernando c Zak Crawley b Dominic Bess 3 19 0 0 15.79
Angelo Mathews b Dominic Bess 5 11 0 0 45.45
Dinesh Chandimal c James Anderson b Jack Leach 9 6 2 0 150.00
Niroshan Dickwella c Dan Lawrence b Dominic Bess 7 14 1 0 50.00
Ramesh Mendis c Jos Buttler b Jack Leach 16 20 3 0 80.00
Dilruwan Perera c Zak Crawley b Dominic Bess 4 13 0 0 30.77
Suranga Lakmal not out 11 32 1 0 34.38
Lasith Embuldeniya c Jonathan Bairstow b Joe Root 40 42 6 1 95.24
Asitha Fernando b Joe Root 0 1 0 0 0.00


Extras 4 (b 3 , lb 0 , nb 1, w 0, pen 0)
Total 126/10 (35.5 Overs, RR: 3.52)
Bowling O M R W Econ
James Anderson 2 0 6 0 3.00
Sam Curran 2 0 9 0 4.50
Dominic Bess 16 1 49 4 3.06
Jack Leach 14 1 59 4 4.21
Joe Root 1.5 1 0 2 0.00


Batsmen R B 4s 6s SR
Zak Crawley c Oshada Fernando b Lasith Embuldeniya 13 19 1 0 68.42
Dominic Sibley not out 56 144 2 0 38.89
Jonathan Bairstow lbw b Lasith Embuldeniya 29 28 3 1 103.57
Joe Root b 11 16 1 0 68.75
Dan Lawrence c Niroshan Dickwella b Lasith Embuldeniya 2 9 0 0 22.22
Jos Buttler not out 46 48 1 0 95.83


Extras 7 (b 0 , lb 4 , nb 3, w 0, pen 0)
Total 164/4 (43.3 Overs, RR: 3.77)
Bowling O M R W Econ
Lasith Embuldeniya 20 3 73 3 3.65
Dilruwan Perera 13.3 1 39 0 2.93
Ramesh Mendis 10 0 48 1 4.80