England scent victory after Jennings century
GALLE, Sri Lanka, (Reuters) - Opener Keaton Jennings ended his two-year wait for a second test century with a career-best 146 not out as England inched towards a comprehensive victory in the opening test against Sri Lanka yesterday.
Having taken a handy 139-run first-innings lead, England declared their second innings on 322 for six to set Sri Lanka an improbable 462-run victory target.
The hosts ended day three on 15 for no loss, 447 behind and staring at a crushing defeat inside four days in spinner Rangana Herath’s farewell test.
Openers Dimuth Karunaratne (seven) and Kaushal Silva (eight) survived seven overs but Sri Lanka will need a near miracle to save the test.
Earlier, the tourists resumed on 38-0 and their openers consolidated their position until they suffered a mini-collapse.
Debutant Rory Burns’s (23) foolhardy pursuit of a non-existent single culminated in his runout and Moeen Ali could not justify his promotion to number three for the second time in the match, following up his firstinnings golden duck with three.
England captain Joe Root (three) also had a deja vu moment when Herath dismissed him for the second time in the match.
Jennings, however, looked confident against the spinners, often playing the sweep shot — both traditional and reverse — to negate them.
Ben Stokes, Jennings’ partner in their 107-run fourth-wicket partnership, shrugged off his early tentativeness to clobber three sixes in his 62 before Dilruwan Perara spun one past his bat to hit the top of the offstump with a beautiful delivery.
Jennings, who hit a hundred in his debut test against India in 2016, took a single off Dhananjaya de Silva to end his century drought.
The 26-year-old pumped air while running before taking his helmet off and raising his bat in celebration.
The left-hander’s patient 280ball knock included nine fours as he demonstrated to his team mates how to play spin in the sub-continent.
Jos Buttler made 35 and England’s first-innings hero Ben Foakes contributed 37 before Root decided to give his bowler a go at the Sri Lankan openers in fading light.
Herath claimed three wickets in his 93rd and final test at the same venue where the 40-yearold left-arm spinner made his debut against Australia in 1999. England 1st innings Rory Burns c Niroshan Dickwella b Suranga Lakmal Keaton Jennings b Dilruwan Perera Moeen Ali b Suranga Lakmal Joe Root b Rangana Herath Ben Stokes b Dilruwan Perera Jos Buttler c Niroshan Dickwella b Dilruwan Perera Ben Foakes c Dhananjaya de Silva b Suranga Lakmal Sam Curran c Dinesh Chandimal b Akila Dananjaya Adil Rashid c Dhananjaya de Silva b Dilruwan Perera Jack Leach c Dhananjaya de Silva b Dilruwan Perera 15 James Anderson Not Out 0 Extras 1b 1lb 0nb 0pen 0w 2 Total (97.0 overs) all out 342 Fall of Wickets : 1-10 Burns, 2-10 Ali, 3-72 Root, 4-98 Jennings, 5-103 Stokes, 6-164 Buttler, 7-252 Curran, 8-306 Rashid, 9-330 Leach, 10-342 Foakes Bowling Ov Md Rn Wk Econ Ex Suranga Lakmal 18 5 73 3 4.06 Dilruwan Perera 31 6 75 5 2.42 Akila Dananjaya 20 2 96 1 4.80 Rangana Herath 25 4 78 1 3.12 Dhananjaya de Silva 3 0 18 0 6.00 Sri Lanka 1st innings Dimuth Karunaratne c Ben Foakes b James Anderson Kaushal Silva lbw Sam Curran Dhananjaya de Silva b Moeen Ali Kusal Mendis c Ben Stokes b Jack Leach Angelo Mathews c Keaton Jennings b Moeen Ali Dinesh Chandimal st Ben Foakes b Adil Rashid Niroshan Dickwella c Jos Buttler b Moeen Ali Dilruwan Perera c Jos Buttler b Jack Leach Akila Dananjaya c Ben Foakes b Moeen Ali Suranga Lakmal c James 9 46 0 35 7
38 107 48 35 4 1
14 19 52 33 28 21 0 Anderson b Adil Rashid 15 Rangana Herath Not Out 14 Extras 0b 2lb 0nb 0pen 0w 2 Total (68.0 overs) all out 203 Fall of Wickets : 1-4 Karunaratne, 2-10 Silva, 3-34 Mendis, 4-40 de Silva, 5-115 Chandimal, 6-136 Mathews, 7-171 Dickwella, 8-173 Perera, 9-175 Perera, 10-203 Lakmal Bowling Ov Md Rn Wk Econ Ex James Anderson 10 0 26 1 2.60 Sam Curran 6 1 16 1 2.67 Jack Leach 18 2 41 2 2.28 Moeen Ali 21 4 66 4 3.14 Adil Rashid 9 1 30 2 3.33 Ben Stokes 4 0 22 0 5.50 England 2nd innings Rory Burns Run Out Dimuth Karunaratne Keaton Jennings Not Out Moeen Ali c Rangana Herath b Dilruwan Perera Joe Root c Niroshan Dickwella b Rangana Herath Ben Stokes b Dilruwan Perera Jos Buttler c Kaushal Silva b Rangana Herath Ben Foakes c Kusal Mendis b Akila Dananjaya 37 Extras 4b 7lb 2nb 0pen 0w 13 Total (93.0 overs) decl 322 Fall of Wickets : 1-60 Burns, 2-67 Ali, 3-74 Root, 4-181 Stokes, 5-258 Buttler, 6-319 Foakes Did Not Bat : Curran, Rashid, Leach, Anderson Bowling Ov Md Rn Wk Econ Ex Dilruwan Perera 30 3 94 2 3.13 Suranga Lakmal 9 2 30 0 3.33 2nb Rangana Herath 23 1 59 2 2.57 Akila Dananjaya 18.5 2 87 1 4.62 Dhananjaya de Silva 12.1 2 41 0 3.37 Sri Lanka 2nd innings Dimuth Karunaratne Not Out 7 Kaushal Silva Not Out 8 Extras 0b 0lb 0nb 0pen 0w 0 Total (7.0 overs) 15-0 Bowling Ov Md Rn Wk Econ Ex Sam Curran 1 1 0 0 0.00 James Anderson 1 0 4 0 4.00 Moeen Ali 2 0 7 0 3.50 Adil Rashid 2 0 2 0 1.00 ack Leach 1 0 2 0 2.00 Umpire Christopher Gaffaney Umpire Marais Erasmus Video Sundaram Ravi Match Referee Andrew Pycroft 23 146
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