England registered a 5-wicket win over Sri Lanka in the opening Test to go 1-0 up in the three-match series at Old Trafford.
Sri Lanka had a fantastic morning session on Day 4 as Dinesh Chandimal and Kamindu Mendis stretched their lead to 169.
The injury to Mark Wood proved to be a huge blow for England as the visitors managed to capitalize on it. Mendis went onto score his third Test ton and became the first Sri Lankan batter to score a hundred in England while batting at No.7 or below.
Chandimal also notched up a fighting half-century as Sri Lanka reached 291/6 for their second innings by Lunch break.
However, it didn’t take long for England to bundle out Sri Lanka once the partnership was broken after the break. Chandimal and Mendis had added 117 runs for the 7th wicket as Sri Lanka finished with a lead of 204 runs.
The seamers Chris Woakes and Matthew Potts stood out with the ball for the hosts as they bagged 3 wickets each.
England were in a spot of bother in the run-chase as they lost 3 top order wickets for 70 runs. However, their middle order batters looked in control and played some positive cricket.
The experienced batter Joe Root and Harry Brook had a handy partnership worth 49 runs for the 4th wicket, but when the latter looked in control, he was dismissed by Prabath Jayasuriya for 32 runs.
With a century under his belt, Jamie Smith walked out with the same confidence and played another pivotal innings to take the game away from the visitors.
Root in the company of Chris Woakes finished off the formalities as England got over the line with 5 wickets in hand.
Result
| Batsmen | R | B | 4s | 6s | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nishan Madushka | c Joe Root b Chris Woakes | 4 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 25.00 |
| Dimuth Karunaratne | c Jamie Smith b Gus Atkinson | 2 | 18 | 0 | 0 | 11.11 |
| Kusal Mendis | c Harry Brook b Mark Wood | 24 | 34 | 4 | 0 | 70.59 |
| Angelo Mathews | lbw b Chris Woakes | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Dinesh Chandimal | lbw b Shoaib Bashir | 17 | 40 | 2 | 0 | 42.50 |
| Dhananjaya de Silva | c Dan Lawrence b Shoaib Bashir | 74 | 84 | 8 | 0 | 88.10 |
| Kamindu Mendis | c Jamie Smith b Chris Woakes | 12 | 25 | 1 | 0 | 48.00 |
| Prabath Jayasuriya | c Jamie Smith b Gus Atkinson | 10 | 20 | 1 | 0 | 50.00 |
| Milan Rathnayake | c Chris Woakes b Shoaib Bashir | 72 | 135 | 6 | 2 | 53.33 |
| Vishwa Fernando | run out (Ollie Pope) | 13 | 62 | 2 | 0 | 20.97 |
| Asitha Fernando | not out | 0 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Extras | 8 (b 0 , lb 4 , nb 1, w 3, pen 0) |
| Total | 236/10 (74 Overs, RR: 3.19) |
| Bowling | O | M | R | W | Econ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chris Woakes | 11 | 3 | 32 | 3 | 2.91 | |
| Gus Atkinson | 16 | 3 | 48 | 2 | 3.00 | |
| Matthew Potts | 9 | 0 | 48 | 0 | 5.33 | |
| Mark Wood | 8 | 0 | 31 | 1 | 3.88 | |
| Shoaib Bashir | 23 | 4 | 55 | 3 | 2.39 | |
| Joe Root | 7 | 2 | 18 | 0 | 2.57 | |
| Batsmen | R | B | 4s | 6s | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ben Duckett | lbw b Asitha Fernando | 18 | 20 | 2 | 0 | 90.00 |
| Dan Lawrence | c Dinesh Chandimal b Vishwa Fernando | 30 | 39 | 3 | 0 | 76.92 |
| Ollie Pope | b Asitha Fernando | 6 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 75.00 |
| Joe Root | c Dinesh Chandimal b Asitha Fernando | 42 | 57 | 4 | 0 | 73.68 |
| Harry Brook | b Prabath Jayasuriya | 56 | 73 | 4 | 0 | 76.71 |
| Jamie Smith | c Dinesh Chandimal b Prabath Jayasuriya | 111 | 148 | 8 | 1 | 75.00 |
| Chris Woakes | b Prabath Jayasuriya | 25 | 65 | 3 | 0 | 38.46 |
| Gus Atkinson | c Dinesh Chandimal b Milan Rathnayake | 20 | 65 | 1 | 0 | 30.77 |
| Matthew Potts | c Kusal Mendis b Vishwa Fernando | 17 | 23 | 2 | 0 | 73.91 |
| Mark Wood | b Asitha Fernando | 22 | 13 | 3 | 1 | 169.23 |
| Shoaib Bashir | not out | 3 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 60.00 |
| Extras | 8 (b 0 , lb 4 , nb 3, w 1, pen 0) |
| Total | 358/10 (86.3 Overs, RR: 4.14) |
| Bowling | O | M | R | W | Econ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dhananjaya de Silva | 3 | 0 | 14 | 0 | 4.67 | |
| Prabath Jayasuriya | 31 | 5 | 85 | 3 | 2.74 | |
| Asitha Fernando | 18 | 0 | 103 | 4 | 5.72 | |
| Vishwa Fernando | 19.3 | 1 | 73 | 2 | 3.78 | |
| Milan Rathnayake | 13 | 0 | 66 | 1 | 5.08 | |
| Kamindu Mendis | 2 | 0 | 13 | 0 | 6.50 | |
| Batsmen | R | B | 4s | 6s | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nishan Madushka | b Chris Woakes | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Dimuth Karunaratne | c Harry Brook b Mark Wood | 27 | 32 | 4 | 0 | 84.38 |
| Kusal Mendis | c Jamie Smith b Gus Atkinson | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Angelo Mathews | c Matthew Potts b Chris Woakes | 65 | 145 | 2 | 1 | 44.83 |
| Dinesh Chandimal | c Harry Singh b Matthew Potts | 79 | 119 | 7 | 0 | 66.39 |
| Dhananjaya de Silva | lbw b Matthew Potts | 12 | 25 | 1 | 0 | 48.00 |
| Kamindu Mendis | c Joe Root b Gus Atkinson | 113 | 183 | 15 | 1 | 61.75 |
| Milan Rathnayake | c Ben Duckett b Joe Root | 10 | 15 | 1 | 0 | 66.67 |
| Prabath Jayasuriya | c Harry Brook b Matthew Potts | 5 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 50.00 |
| Vishwa Fernando | lbw b Chris Woakes | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Asitha Fernando | not out | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Extras | 15 (b 0 , lb 8 , nb 1, w 6, pen 0) |
| Total | 326/10 (89.3 Overs, RR: 3.64) |
| Bowling | O | M | R | W | Econ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chris Woakes | 22 | 6 | 558 | 3 | 25.36 | |
| Gus Atkinson | 17 | 2 | 89 | 2 | 5.24 | |
| Shoaib Bashir | 20 | 0 | 77 | 0 | 3.85 | |
| Mark Wood | 10.2 | 1 | 36 | 1 | 3.53 | |
| Matthew Potts | 17.3 | 4 | 47 | 3 | 2.72 | |
| Joe Root | 1.4 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 3.57 | |
| Dan Lawrence | 1 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 5.00 | |
| Batsmen | R | B | 4s | 6s | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ben Duckett | c Kusal Mendis b Asitha Fernando | 11 | 14 | 1 | 0 | 78.57 |
| Dan Lawrence | lbw b Milan Rathnayake | 34 | 54 | 2 | 1 | 62.96 |
| Ollie Pope | c Dhananjaya de Silva b Prabath Jayasuriya | 6 | 17 | 0 | 0 | 35.29 |
| Joe Root | not out | 62 | 128 | 2 | 0 | 48.44 |
| Harry Brook | c & b Prabath Jayasuriya | 32 | 68 | 3 | 0 | 47.06 |
| Jamie Smith | b Asitha Fernando | 39 | 48 | 4 | 1 | 81.25 |
| Chris Woakes | not out | 8 | 18 | 1 | 0 | 44.44 |
| Extras | 13 (b 0 , lb 5 , nb 3, w 5, pen 0) |
| Total | 205/5 (57.2 Overs, RR: 3.58) |
| Bowling | O | M | R | W | Econ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vishwa Fernando | 8 | 0 | 46 | 0 | 5.75 | |
| Asitha Fernando | 12 | 1 | 25 | 2 | 2.08 | |
| Prabath Jayasuriya | 25.2 | 4 | 98 | 2 | 3.89 | |
| Milan Rathnayake | 12 | 0 | 31 | 1 | 2.58 | |
