Hey all so I thought I'd do something completely different this time a review of England cricket's test match in Sri Lanka. I know it's something I haven't done, but this time I thought I'd try and do a sport that I haven't done on this blog. England was coming into the series after victory against Pakistan and India in the summer and a dominant ODI series marred by the monsoon season rainstorms shortening the matches and winning the only T20 international. If you'll be wondering why you might see scores like 100-4. The number on the left is the number of runs scored, and the one on the right is the number of wicket's lost. This was the first of 3 test matches in the series.
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| Ben Foakes had a perfect start to his Test career scoring 107 |
With the first test match being played in Galle which featured its fort wall at one end of the ground, it was shown as one of the most picturesque grounds to play at. With the monsoon dampening the pitch before the match. Before the game, Sri Lanka's Rangana Herath announced that the test match would be his last ever and he would be retiring at the end of the game. It didn't start easy for England as they lost the first 5 wickets on what looked like a pitch that wouldn't be spin-friendly. Debutant Rory Burns was out for 9 runs as he edged his shot from Suranga Lakmal to wicket-keeper Niroshan Dickwella. Moeen Ali was then clean bowled then next ball as it swung inside Ali's bat taking out his off-stump which made it after 3 overs of the match England 10-2. This brought in the captain Joe Root. He played a magnificent inning but was bowled by Herath on 35 for Herath's 100th wicket at Galle with the score at 72-2.
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| Rangana Herath played his final test match. |
The next to fall was Keaton Jennings after scoring 46, which included 7 boundaries when he was bowled by Dilruwan Perera on his middle and leg stumps. That was Perera's first of 5 wickets in the first innings. The next of his victims was Ben Stokes leaving for just 7 runs after hitting his leg stump as Stokes tried to play a sweep shot and leaving England looking at 103-5 at lunch.
After lunch Jos Buttler and another debutant, Ben Foakes settled down and went to work settling down the England innings. Buttler was looking to score a half-century but edged Perera's ball to Dickwella for 38, which included 4 boundaries. Sam Curran England's new-found superstar in the summer came in and produced an entertaining inning with 48 runs with 4 boundaries including 3 6's. But the star was Ben Foakes as he scored 107 in his first-ever test innings. Adil Rashid decided to join the party by scoring 35 runs. Jack Leach then contributed with 15 and England's leading bowler Jimmy Anderson then helped Foakes before Foakes lost his wicket to Lakmal ending England's first innings at 342 all out.
Sri Lanka then came out looking to catch up with England and hope that their batting was better than their bowling and fielding. Well, it didn't start off brilliantly as their opener Dimuth Karunaratne was edged on the second ball of Jimmy Anderson's opening over after scoring a boundary on the first ball. Sam Curran then trapped Kishan Silva LBW at 10-2. Kusal Medis was next to go edging Jack Leach to Ben Stokes for 19 making it 34-3. The following was Dhananjaya de Silva getting clean bowled by Moeen Ali leaving Sri Lanka with a difficult inning at 40-4. They did recover with a partnership of 75 runs of nearly 27 overs. However, Adil Rashid ended that partnership by taking the Sri Lankan captain's wicket for 33 runs after being stumped by Foakes leaving Sri Lanka at 115-5.
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| Moeen Ali had a match for bowlers taking 8 wickets. |
Ali then returned and struck again this time removing Angelo Matthews for 53 runs. He then struck again this time removing Dickwella for 28 runs and then took his fourth wicket by removing Dananjaya for a duck with Sri Lanka at 173-8. Leach and Rashid then finished off the innings removing Perera and Lakmal ending the innings at 203 all out with England having a lead of 139 runs. However, before Lakmal was out England and the umpires formed a guard of honour for Herath.
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| England forms a guard of honour for Herath. |
England decided to start their second innings by looking to put the game beyond Sri Lanka's reach of winning. It seemed to have been the order as England were cruising along until Rory Burns was run out for 23. Ali then had another rotten day with the bat this time being caught for 3 runs which left England at 67-2. It was then a case of deja vu as Root was out by Herath again. What could have caused a collapse was rescued by a 107 run partnership by Keaton Jennings and Ben Stokes. This featured an inning of 62 runs for Stokes before being bowled by Perera on his off stump.
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| Keaton Jennings celebrating a century as he scored 146 |
Jos Buttler and Foakes then came out and put scores of 35 and 37 respectively to extend England's lead to 461 after Root declared at 322-6. The star for England though was Keaton Jennings scoring 146 which was his 2nd century in his Test career.
Sri Lanka had it all to play for now, and they knew that they had all of day 4 and day 5 to sneak a win or draw the match. They survived the rest of day 3 but as day 4 began it went wrong for the hosts as Kashual Silva was bowled LBW by Leach for 30 runs. Karunaratne was the next to fall being caught and bowled by Ali for his 5th wicket in the match. The next wicket showed the cruelty of cricket De Silva survived a wicket to the wicket-keeper Foakes only to edge it to Root in one of the slips the next ball. That left Sri Lanka at lunch on day 4 at 98-3. Jack Leach then decided to join the party, taking the next two wickets of Mendis and Chandimal. Ali then went on a crusade and took 3 more wickets this time of Dickwella(16), Matthews(53) and Dananjaya(8) and made it 8 wickets for Ali in the match. Adil Rashid took Perera's wicket for 30 runs. The last wicket was Rangana Herath this time a run out after surviving an earlier decision was out for 5 terms, and Sri Lanka ended up with 250 all-out giving England a 211 run win.
The next match is at Pallekele. If England wins the game, they win the series anything less than that, and it makes the third and final test an exciting match.
I'll be back with the review of the match after it ends.
KRO Mark
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