Coming into day-three with 98 for 2 on the board, the Englishmen narrowed the gap much to the Lankans dismay ending the day on 339 for 9.
The visiting skipper, who is in tremendous form, struck a magnificent 186 runs. Root batted through the day better than any other batsman has done so far in this series. Not even the locals. He swept as if he was batting in his backyard and kept using his feet well to put off the settled bowling unit of Sri Lanka who took the other batsmen by their collars.
Root rescues England after Embuldeniya’s double-strike
Johnny Bairstow was the first to fall on day-three as he was outplayed by the Sri Lankan spin spearhead, Lasith Embuldeniya. Bairstow was soon followed by the next man in, Dan Lawrence, who had no clue whatsoever on how to tackle the rigorous spin from Embuldeniya. The young left-arm spinner dropped one in front of Lawrence’s eye line and turned it away sharply off the surface for which the batter had no option but to stick his bat out. It got his edge and flew to Lahiru Thirimanne at first slip.
Being known for his busy batting, Jos Buttler kept rolling his way as he partnered with his skipper to steady England’s ship with a 97-run stand for the fifth wicket. Buttler lived by the reverse sweep and also perished by the same. He made 55 runs off 95 deliveries with 7 boundaries in it.
Mathews holds the fort with a maiden ton at Galle
Sam Curran, Dom Bess and Mark Wood tried to get through to stumps but the Thirimanne-Embuldeniya combination stood in their way. All three of them were beaten by the turn and ended up in the slips. Dom Bess was the toughest of the 3 as he kept a dead bat in front of him for 95 deliveries scoring 32 runs. He was involved in a very important partnership worth 81 runs for the seventh wicket with Root.
In the bowling front, Sri Lanka seems to have found a gem in Lasith Embuldeniya who made his 9th Test look like the 90th. He had excellent control over the ball and bowled from angles that flustered the batters and left them clueless. He returned figures of 7 for 132 while Ramesh Mendis picked up a wicket and the other turned out to be a runout.
England is now 42 runs behind Sri Lanka’s first-innings score and this Test match looks to get exciting in the days to come.
Result
| Batsmen | R | B | 4s | 6s | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lahiru Thirimanne | c Jos Buttler b James Anderson | 43 | 95 | 5 | 0 | 45.26 |
| Kusal Perera | c Joe Root b James Anderson | 6 | 14 | 1 | 0 | 42.86 |
| Oshada Fernando | b James Anderson | 0 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Angelo Mathews | c Jos Buttler b James Anderson | 110 | 238 | 11 | 0 | 46.22 |
| Dinesh Chandimal | lbw b Mark Wood | 52 | 121 | 4 | 1 | 42.98 |
| Niroshan Dickwella | c Jack Leach b James Anderson | 92 | 144 | 10 | 0 | 63.89 |
| Ramesh Mendis | c Jos Buttler b Mark Wood | 0 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Dilruwan Perera | c Jack Leach b Sam Curran | 67 | 170 | 8 | 1 | 39.41 |
| Suranga Lakmal | c Zak Crawley b James Anderson | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Lasith Embuldeniya | c Joe Root b Mark Wood | 7 | 33 | 0 | 1 | 21.21 |
| Asitha Fernando | not out | 0 | 10 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Extras | 4 (b 0 , lb 2 , nb 1, w 1, pen 0) |
| Total | 381/10 (139.3 Overs, RR: 2.73) |
| Fall of Wickets | 1-7 (4.1) Kusal Perera, 2-7 (4.5) Oshada Fernando, 3-76 (26.2) Lahiru Thirimanne, 4-193 (68.6) Dinesh Chandimal, 5-232 (88.6) Angelo Mathews, 6-243 (91.6) Ramesh Mendis, 7-332 (120.4) Niroshan Dickwella, |
| Bowling | O | M | R | W | Econ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| James Anderson | 29 | 13 | 40 | 6 | 1.38 | |
| Sam Curran | 18.3 | 3 | 60 | 1 | 3.28 | |
| Jack Leach | 38 | 5 | 119 | 0 | 3.13 | |
| Mark Wood | 28 | 4 | 84 | 3 | 3.00 | |
| Dominic Bess | 26 | 2 | 76 | 0 | 2.92 | |
| Batsmen | R | B | 4s | 6s | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dominic Sibley | lbw b Lasith Embuldeniya | 0 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Zak Crawley | c Lahiru Thirimanne b Lasith Embuldeniya | 5 | 24 | 0 | 0 | 20.83 |
| Jonathan Bairstow | c Oshada Fernando b Lasith Embuldeniya | 28 | 73 | 5 | 0 | 38.36 |
| Joe Root | run out (Oshada Fernando) | 186 | 309 | 18 | 0 | 60.19 |
| Dan Lawrence | c Lahiru Thirimanne b Lasith Embuldeniya | 3 | 21 | 0 | 0 | 14.29 |
| Jos Buttler | c Oshada Fernando b Ramesh Mendis | 55 | 95 | 7 | 0 | 57.89 |
| Sam Curran | c Lahiru Thirimanne b Lasith Embuldeniya | 13 | 43 | 0 | 1 | 30.23 |
| Dominic Bess | c Lahiru Thirimanne b Lasith Embuldeniya | 32 | 95 | 4 | 0 | 33.68 |
| Mark Wood | c Lahiru Thirimanne b Lasith Embuldeniya | 1 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 16.67 |
| Jack Leach | lbw b Dilruwan Perera | 1 | 17 | 0 | 0 | 5.88 |
| James Anderson | not out | 4 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 80.00 |
| Extras | 16 (b 8 , lb 3 , nb 5, w 0, pen 0) |
| Total | 344/10 (116.1 Overs, RR: 2.96) |
| Bowling | O | M | R | W | Econ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Suranga Lakmal | 16 | 7 | 31 | 0 | 1.94 | |
| Lasith Embuldeniya | 42 | 6 | 137 | 7 | 3.26 | |
| Asitha Fernando | 10 | 2 | 31 | 0 | 3.10 | |
| Dilruwan Perera | 32.1 | 4 | 86 | 1 | 2.68 | |
| Ramesh Mendis | 16 | 1 | 48 | 1 | 3.00 | |
| Batsmen | R | B | 4s | 6s | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kusal Perera | lbw b Jack Leach | 14 | 25 | 2 | 0 | 56.00 |
| Lahiru Thirimanne | c Zak Crawley b Jack Leach | 13 | 33 | 0 | 0 | 39.39 |
| Oshada Fernando | c Zak Crawley b Dominic Bess | 3 | 19 | 0 | 0 | 15.79 |
| Angelo Mathews | b Dominic Bess | 5 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 45.45 |
| Dinesh Chandimal | c James Anderson b Jack Leach | 9 | 6 | 2 | 0 | 150.00 |
| Niroshan Dickwella | c Dan Lawrence b Dominic Bess | 7 | 14 | 1 | 0 | 50.00 |
| Ramesh Mendis | c Jos Buttler b Jack Leach | 16 | 20 | 3 | 0 | 80.00 |
| Dilruwan Perera | c Zak Crawley b Dominic Bess | 4 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 30.77 |
| Suranga Lakmal | not out | 11 | 32 | 1 | 0 | 34.38 |
| Lasith Embuldeniya | c Jonathan Bairstow b Joe Root | 40 | 42 | 6 | 1 | 95.24 |
| Asitha Fernando | b Joe Root | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| Extras | 4 (b 3 , lb 0 , nb 1, w 0, pen 0) |
| Total | 126/10 (35.5 Overs, RR: 3.52) |
| Bowling | O | M | R | W | Econ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| James Anderson | 2 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 3.00 | |
| Sam Curran | 2 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 4.50 | |
| Dominic Bess | 16 | 1 | 49 | 4 | 3.06 | |
| Jack Leach | 14 | 1 | 59 | 4 | 4.21 | |
| Joe Root | 1.5 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0.00 | |
| Batsmen | R | B | 4s | 6s | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Zak Crawley | c Oshada Fernando b Lasith Embuldeniya | 13 | 19 | 1 | 0 | 68.42 |
| Dominic Sibley | not out | 56 | 144 | 2 | 0 | 38.89 |
| Jonathan Bairstow | lbw b Lasith Embuldeniya | 29 | 28 | 3 | 1 | 103.57 |
| Joe Root | b | 11 | 16 | 1 | 0 | 68.75 |
| Dan Lawrence | c Niroshan Dickwella b Lasith Embuldeniya | 2 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 22.22 |
| Jos Buttler | not out | 46 | 48 | 1 | 0 | 95.83 |
| Extras | 7 (b 0 , lb 4 , nb 3, w 0, pen 0) |
| Total | 164/4 (43.3 Overs, RR: 3.77) |
| Bowling | O | M | R | W | Econ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lasith Embuldeniya | 20 | 3 | 73 | 3 | 3.65 | |
| Dilruwan Perera | 13.3 | 1 | 39 | 0 | 2.93 | |
| Ramesh Mendis | 10 | 0 | 48 | 1 | 4.80 | |
