Two quick wickets after tea, just before the dark grey clouds of late afternoon intruded upon the drama, left England with a good chance of a series-winning victory. When the entire ground was magically covered by blue plastic sheets in the time it takes to brew a pot of tea the balance of the match had lurched again in England’s favour. Sri Lanka needed 75 runs to win; England needed three wickets.
This has been a match of so many twists and turns that only a fool was guaranteeing the outcome, but the loss of Angelo Mathews for a restrained yet imperious 88, who was soon to be followed by Dilruwan Perera, meant that England were the favourites again. Against all the odds the match has made it to the fifth day, though the return of those afternoon thunderstorms has contributed to that.
Whatever the result, this has been a captivating Test mainly because throughout the first four days no one has been quite sure which team was winning. Moreover, when the ball is moving class will out, which was most notably highlighted by the innings of Joe Root and Mathews, and the cricket has an intensity absent when the game is played on dry slabs of brown concrete.
It has been bewildering that so many runs have been scored, 1,198 so far. The surface has been behaving in a similar way to some of those where Jack Leach does most of his bowling at Taunton. Sometimes those matches have been over in two or three days so what is the difference? It is the quality of the batsmen – from both sides – who are not intimidated and do not panic when the ball deviates. They enjoy the challenge rather than give up in despair. There are perils, but if a good batsman survives for 15 minutes he can prosper. So this has been a treat for the thousands of England fans here and the locals have started to become more interested in their beleaguered side.
There were more home supporters in the ground at the start of play when the addition of 22 runs by Ben Foakes and Jimmy Anderson at least made the maths simple: England’s lead was 300 runs. Leach became the first man to open the bowling and batting for England in the same Test match since Graham Gooch in Faisalabad in 1987 – before that one had to go back to Trevor Bailey.
It proved a good decision to ally Leach with Anderson and in any case Sam Curran was off the field with discomfort in his right side, apparently from thumping all those sixes in the first innings. Within the space of eight overs Leach had taken the first three wickets; he controlled the shiny new ball well and he had some assistance from a nervy top order. Kaushal Silva raced down the pitch frantically, the ball turned and he was comfortably stumped. In Leach’s next over Dhananjaya de Silva glided a ball from the middle of his bat, whereupon Keaton Jennings produced the first of two moments of wizardry at short-leg, which epitomised England’s zest and zeal in the field. This may be the crucial tiny difference between the sides. Jennings instinctively clasped a fast-travelling ball into his hands before being mobbed by his teammates. Next, the impetuous Kusal Mendis, currently a wayward talent, swept and missed and was lbw after review. Sri Lanka were 26 for three. Perhaps this would be a doddle? Not in this match.
It took another intuitive reaction from Jennings to conjure the next wicket. Dimuth Karunaratne and Mathews had added 77 with remarkably few problems. They played late and delicately guided the ball into the gaps of a deep-set field. Karunaratne has batted superbly in this match and should have even more to show for it. He was run out by a Ben Stokes direct hit in the first innings for 63. This time, on 57, he swept deftly against Adil Rashid once again but Jennings, anticipating the stroke, moved to his left at short-leg. The ball hit his left hand and popped into the air so that Foakes could complete the simple part of the catch. Betraying his naivety afterwards Jennings admitted that this was not intentional.
Another 73 were added by Mathews and Roshen Silva all too easily until Moeen Ali made his first intervention. An inside edge took Silva’s pad before ballooning to slip. Once again the review system sorted out the correct decision. In came Niroshan Dickwella, impish from the start and eagerly sweeping the majority of the deliveries he faced. By tea, Sri Lanka were well-placed at 219 for five but the loss of those two wickets as the clouds grew darker changed everything.
Confronted with the excellence of Mathews and Karunaratne England had battled hard but not flawlessly. After snatching those early wickets Leach, maybe excited by his success, lost some control of his line and length. Initially, Moeen was expensive while Rashid bowled one of his best spells (17 overs on the trot, marred only by an ugly final one) with little reward.
After four days, the spinners were the only English bowlers to have taken a wicket.
