England beat Sri Lanka by five wickets in the first cricket Test at Manchester yesterday to go one up in the three match series after being set a 205 target as Joe Root made a half century and the visiting team ran out of steam on the fourth day yesterday.
Kamindu Mendis struck a timely century (113) as Sri Lanka left England the target of 205 on a pitch somewhat difficult for batting.
His century came at a time Sri Lanka faced with a first innings deficit of 123 were struggling to make runs losing five wickets for 95 runs as England’s fast bowlers Chris Woakes, Mark Wood, Gus Aitkinson and Matthew Potts threatened to wrap up the innings much earlier.
But Mendis had other ideas and held the Sri Lanka innings together along with Dinesh Chandimal who made 79 after leaving the field the previous day when he was struck by a ball from Wood that damaged his thumb.
Scoreboard
Sri Lanka first innings 236 (Dhananjaya de Silva 74, Milan Ratnayake 72)
England first innings 358 (Harry Brook 56, Jamie Smith 111)
Sri Lanka second innings
Nishan Madushka b Woakes 0
Dimuth Karunaratne c Brook b Wood 27
Kusal Mendis c Smith b Atkinson 0
Angelo Mathews c Potts b Woakes 65
Dinesh Chandimal c (Sub) b Potts 79
Dhananjaya de Silva lbw b Potts 11
Kamindu Mendis c Root b Atkinson 113
Milan Rathnayake c Duckett b Root 10
Prabath Jayasuriya c Brook b Potts 5
Vishwa Fernando lbw b Woakes 0
Asitha Fernando not out 0
Extras (lb-9, nb-1, w-6) 16
Total (all out) 326
Fall: 0, 1, 52, 74, 95, 173, 190, 307, 321, 322, 326
Bowling:
Chris Woakes 22-6-58-3, Gus Atkinson 17-2-89-2, Shoaib Bashir 20-0-77-0, Mark Wood 10.2-1-36-1, Matthew Potts 17.3-4-47-3, Joe Root 1.4-0-5-1, Dan Lawrence 1-0-5-0
England second innings
Ben Duckett c Mendis b Fernando 11
Dan Lawrence lbw Ratnayake 34
Ollie Pope c de Silva b Jayasuriya 06
Joe Root not out 62
Harry Brook c and b Jayasuriya 32
Jamie Smith b Fernando 39
Chris Woakes not out 08
Extras 13
Total for 5 wickets 205
Fall: 34, 56, 70, 119, 183
Bowling:
Vishwa Fernando 8-0-46-0, Asitha Fernando 12-1-25-2, P Jayasuriya 25.2-4-98-2, M Ratnayake 12-0-31-1
