Lunch Sri Lanka 139 for 4 (de Silva 57*, Mathews 2*) trail England 285 (Curran 64, Buttler 63, Dilruwan 4-61) by 146 runs
Live scorecard and ball-by-ball details
In the toughest conditions seen in the series so far, Sri Lanka’s batsmen managed something on the second morning of this Test that they had not in Galle: they fought.
But then England fought back. Ben Stokes magicked up two dismissals, both of them from positions in the field, reversing the gains Sri Lanka had made during the 96-run third wicket stand between Dimuth Karunaratne and Dhananjaya de Silva.
Having lost three wickets in the session, two of those in the last 20 minutes of play, Sri Lanka’s position in the match remained precarious – they were 146 runs behind, with six wickets in hand, and their bad-pitch specialist Karunaratne back in the pavilion. England, who took three wickets in the session, played as a side smelling blood in the last few overs. Jack Leach will lick his lips over lunch, having hit beautiful lengths throughout his morning spell, claiming the wicket of Kusal Mendis as a reward. He has two right-handers in to bowl at when play resumes.
Before Stokes’ interventions, which produced the run-out of Karunaratne, for 63, and an outstanding reflex catch at slip, lunging low to his left to hold the chance off Mendis’ bat, Sri Lanka looked to be marching towards a place of security. Karunaratne and de Silva’s progress was not pretty. Spitting balls routinely whooshed past outside edges, pads were struck, the stumps practically shaved, appeals were raised, and a DRS review taken up, but the score is what matters, and they both progressed to half-centuries on the kind of surface where a fifty is worth a hundred.
Karunaratne was the tetchier of the two, surviving a difficult first 15 minutes, struggling particularly against the bowling of Moeen Ali, who found his edge, though the chances did not go to the fielders at catching height. Even when Karunaratne began to settle into a rhythm, reverse-sweeping Leach to good effect, and finding ample singles to the leg side, there was the feeling a mistake could soon come. Twice he middled Leach to short leg – hitting one into Keaton Jennings’ boot on 21, then into his shins on 39.
De Silva, though, batted perhaps as serenely as anyone could under the circumstances. His liquid drives and glides to third man were a joy, as always, and unlike Karunaratne, he was sure to be severe on the bad balls that England sent his way. There were two graceful fours down the ground when Moeen had overpitched and, late in the session, he smoked two misdirected Stokes bouncers through midwicket, and then mid-on. De Silva ended the session on 58 not out.
It took a piece of truly exceptional fielding to dislodge them – de Silva calling Karunaratne through for a quick single to point, only for Stokes to sweep, swivel and throw down the one stump he had to aim at, all in a fluid motion. Karunaratne was six inches short. Leach’s dismissal of Mendis then buoyed England further. Earlier in the session, nightwatchman Malinda Pushpakumara had mishit Moeen to midwicket, to give the visitors a breakthrough in the third over of the day.