Root vs Embuldeniya as century drives England

Lasith Embuldeniya claims all wickets to fall as England battle spin threat

England 181 for 4 (Root 105*, Buttler 30*) trail Sri Lanka 381 (Mathews 110, Dickwella 92, Dilruwan 67, Chandimal 52, Anderson 6-40) by 200 runs

Joe Root’s masterclass in how to play spin kept England in the contest against Sri Lanka as left-armer Lasith Embuldeniya continued to cause them all sorts of problems on the third morning in Galle.

Root, player of the match in England’s seven-wicket victory in the first Test with a double-ton at the same ground, defied his team’s woes with the bat in the second Test to bring up his century, heading to lunch unbeaten on 105 with England still trailing by 200 runs.

Root resumed on Sunday having faced 77 deliveries for his 67. So strong on the sweep the previous day, Root continued in a similar vein, making batting look easy when it clearly was not, his effortless switch-hit to the boundary off Embuldeniya to move to 87 a case in point.

Embuldeniya broke the century stand between Root and Jonny Bairstow when he had the latter out on review. Bairstow, who resumed on 24, added just four more – a powerful drive off Embuldeniya to the rope at long-on – before he got an inside edge onto his pad, which was collected by Oshada Fernando at slip. Initially given not-out, UltraEdge revealed a clear spike as the ball passed the bat.

Dan Lawrence, so impressive with fifty on debut in the first Test, fell cheaply to an excellent Embuldeniya delivery from around the wicket which turned sharply and found an outside edge, taken at slip by Lahiru Thirimanne.

Embuldeniya had taken all four England wickets to fall, having accounted for openers Dom Sibley and Zak Crawley – both for the third time this series – on Saturday.

Root played a couple of false shots in the session, but they were rare. Even his under-edge while sweeping Dilruwan Perera went through keeper Niroshan Dickwella for four, while a missed sweep off the same bowler struck him on the pad but comfortably outside the line.

Root brought up his century punching a single through midwicket off Dilruwan, his 19th Test ton in 99 matches.

Jos Buttler looked most likely to stick with Root as he went to the interval unbeaten on 30, their partnership worth 49. He survived a nervous moment shortly before lunch when given out lbw attempting a reverse sweep off Dilruwan. The ball looped to leg-slip, but Buttler’s decision to review revealed he had hit the ball into the ground before it was taken.