ENG vs SL | Sri Lanka fall prey to Manchester gloom as England close in on Day 3

SportsCafe Desk

BySportsCafe Desk, SportsCafe Editor

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Sri Lanka were left staring at defeat on an uninterrupted Day 3 at Old Trafford that was thoroughly dominated by England. The Lions failed to clean up the tail, allowing an overnight lead of 23 to grow to 122 courtesy of Jamie Smith's ton, before a regular fall of wickets left them reeling at 204/6.

ā€ŒBrief score: SL 204/6 [Mathews 65, Kamindu 56*; Woakes 2/34] & 236 lead ENG 358 [Smith 111, Brook 56; Asitha 4/103] by 82Ā runs at Stumps on Day 3

Jamie Smith and Gus Atkinson began Day 3 exactly where they had left of the previous evening as the former played aggressor to tick forward the incumbent 20-run partnership. Sri Lanka only aided their cause with inexplicable tactics, allowing the two to rotate strike comfortably even when the former got into his 90s. The Surrey batter eventuallyĀ registered a maiden Test ton and commemorated it with a stoic celebration two balls before Milan Rathnayake opened his Test account by having Atkinson strangled down leg to end a 76-run stand. Smith did not last long thereafter either andĀ ended up nicking a wide delivery from Prabath Jayasuriya to depart for 111. The new ball had also become available just then but the Lions failed to capitalize and were subjected to a rapid 22-run cameo from Mark Wood as well as a composed 17 from Matthew Potts before ultimately folding out the hosts for 358.

The visitors thus took to the field facing a deficit of 122 with just three overs to go for Lunch and suffered a disastrous start. Nishan Madushka shouldered arms on the third ball of the innings that crashed into the stumps while Kusal Mendis nicked behind off Atkinson as the team headed into the break at 10/2. The experienced duo of Dimuth Karunaratne and Angelo Mathews decided to go for the counterattack in the second session and built a 50-run partnership on the back of it, prompting Ollie Pope to bring Wood into the action. The express quickĀ got rid of Karunaratne with his very first delivery and then two overs later injured Dinesh Chandimal's thumb with a nasty 149ks bumper. Dhananjaya de Silva further dented the team's hopes by succumbing to Potts at the stroke of Tea and the team were left reeling at 107/4.

With the ball old and ineffective heading into the final session, Kamindu Mendis and Mathews joined hands to patientlyĀ bringĀ up their respective half-centuries. However, once the umpires agreed to the hosts' plea for a change of balls, the tables turned again. Mathews was immediately pinned down by the return of swing and eventually fell prey to Woakes after 23 consecutive dot balls, shortly before Rathnayake holed out to Joe Root's golden arm. Chandimal was thus forced back onto the field and the veteran played admirably through the pain to cut the Lions' losses who ended the day with a lead of 82 runs.

Root arrived

Played well

Fastest

Gone

Fine wine

Highest ever

Drops

Thumb injured

Retires

A petition

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