Internet Desk: Barring extraordinary events, Sri Lanka are still going to lose the second Test – and potentially by an innings – but they were not, to borrow one of Angelo Mathews’ words, humiliated on the third day as they made England work hard for their rewards in the follow-on.
The captain himself played a large part in that, Mathews striking a bristling 80, while there were also half-centuries for Kaushal Silva and Dinesh Chandimal leaving Sri Lanka needing 88 more to make England bat again.
Sri Lanka’s second innings was a considerable success. In the first three innings of the series they had totalled 311 for 30, so 310 for 5 represented a heartening reversal.
Kaushal Silva’s unbeaten fifty kept England at bay after Sri Lanka were made to follow-on in the second Test at the Riverside today.
At tea on the third day, Sri Lanka were 162 for three — still a huge 235 runs behind England’s first innings 498 for nine declared, which featured Moeen Ali’s Test-best 155 not out.
But at least they had stopped the rot after becoming the first side since New Zealand in England back in 1958 to be bowled out for under 120 in three successive Test innings after being dismissed for 101 in reply to England’s commanding first innings score.
Sri Lanka managed just 91 and 119 during a crushing innings and 88-run defeat in the first of this three-Test series at Headingley last week.
But come Sunday’s tea interval, Silva was 57 not out and Angelo Mathews, the Sri Lanka captain, 35 not out, with their unbroken fourth-wicket stand so far worth 62.
Sri Lanka’s first-innings batting raised questions over whether a schedule with just two warm-up fixtures against Second Division county sides was sufficient preparation for a Test campaign early in an English season.
The fact their top order then appeared, at last, to be adjusting to batting under grey skies in the second innings — albeit some two-thirds of the way through the series — emphasised the point.
Dimuth Karunaratne (26) looked increasingly assured before he edged Chris Woakes to Joe Root at second slip.
Sri Lanka, 58 for one at lunch, saw the talented Kusal Mendis hit three fours in five balls off James Anderson, including two well-struck square cuts.
With the wicket of Mathews, England sniffed the chance of another three-day finish but Sri Lanka did not fold. Chandimal finally found his feet and followed Mathews’ lead by taking on Moeen while Siriwardana avoided a pair and played some pleasing strokes in the closing stages.
The pair could stride off content in the evening sunlight. After Headingley and the first two days here it was hard for things to get much worse for Sri Lanka, but the fact they have managed to make things considerably better can leave them in good heart.