The day couldn’t have gone any better for the visitors – England asserted their authority, riding on Joe Root’s century to post a lead of 185 against Sri Lanka by stumps on day two in Galle.
It was a near-perfect day for England, in which their captain Root scored his 18th Test hundred, and put on a 173-run stand with debutant Dan Lawrence, who scored an impressive 73 in his maiden Test innings. Sri Lanka toiled throughout the day, but conceded 193 runs for just two wickets, and it could have been a lot more had rain not washed out the entirety of the final session. England had posted a daunting 320/4 by stumps.
Rain had its say in the morning as well, delaying the start of the day by 70 minutes. England, resuming on 127/2, suffered the early blow of losing Jonny Bairstow for 47. Bairstow was drawn forward to a flighted delivery from Lasith Embuldeniya, and his edge was just about pouched by Kusal Mendis in the slips.
Persistent rain has ended the second day’s play early in Galle.
— ICC (@ICC) January 15, 2021
England will resume tomorrow on 320/4 🏏#SLvENG Scorecard ➞ https://t.co/uTfWpFGwrm pic.twitter.com/xid0Ns4Gya
Unfortunately for Sri Lanka, that was the last bit of cheer they had for a while. Lawrence partnered Root, and the debutant was immediately at home at the highest level. The manner in which he slog-swept Embuldeniya, shortly before lunch, suggested he was a brave batsman. He was comfortable from the very beginning of his stint, picking up the lengths of the Sri Lankan spinners with apparent ease.
Meanwhile, Root, having gone through 2020 without a century, seemed desperate to put that poor run behind him at the first time of asking. He negated the turn confidently, picked the gaps beautifully, and brought up three figures shortly into the second session, having gone in to lunch at 99. It was already a terrific knock, but Root wasn’t done yet.
The second session visibly deflated Sri Lanka, as Root and Lawrence powered through. England added 114 runs in the middle session, with Sri Lanka managing just the single wicket of Lawrence shortly before the break.
Sri Lanka took the second new ball, and the pitch developed a bit of bite, but Root negated it all, and finished the day just nine runs short of becoming the seventh England batsman to reach 8,000 runs in Test cricket. He is also only 32 runs short of a double-century.
With Jos Buttler, unbeaten on 7, at the other end, Sri Lanka have a huge task ahead of them if they are to keep the visitors at bay.
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