Internet Desk: James Anderson claimed his second five-wicket haul in two days as England swept to an innings-and-88-run win over Sri Lanka in three days at Headingley.
He took 5-29 to hurry the tourists out for 119 and finish with match figures of 10-45 in the summer’s first Test. Despite a rain delay of almost three hours, England wrapped up victory shortly after tea.
Steven Finn grabbed 3-26, while Kusal Mendis top-scored with 53 for an outclassed Sri Lanka side. With only 162.4 overs bowled, it was the 13th shortest Test in history.
A couple of dropped catches aside, England can take great pleasure from the ruthless manner in which they dismantled a team that won on their last trip to Leeds in 2014.
Sri Lanka’s prospects, by contrast, look bleak, and they will be hoping for distinctly less seamer-friendly conditions when the second Test of the three-match series in Durham starts on Friday.
James Anderson, inevitably, was at the heart of the carnage. His newly discovered passion for Headingley’s seam and swing delivered him second-innings figures of 5 for 29 in 12.3 overs.
It was the third ten-wicket haul of his 114-Test career, and his first outside of Trent Bridge, as he sealed match figures of 10 for 45 by plucking out Nuwan Pradeep’s middle stump for a duck. Six of those scalps had come ball-in-glove with Jonny Bairstow, who capped his Man-of-the-Match century with nine catches behind the stumps – equalling the record for the most in a Test in England.