SPINNERS LEAD ENGLAND TO 1-0 LEAD
Sri Lanka didn’t break any records in their attempt to win the first Test against England in Galle yesterday, only slowly capitulating as the fourth day progressed to eventually lose by an emphatic 211 runs. The home team would have had to score 462 to win or bat out two days worth of play to secure a draw, but neither permutation realised with Moeen Ali and Jack Leach sharing seven wickets to bowl out Sri Lanka for 250.
Just as emphatic as the result was the celebration of the career of Rangana Herath whose final Test ended in defeat with the result being confirmed when he was the last man out, run out for five runs. There was no presence of the heads of state – legal or illegal – unlike the last time a Sri Lankan great retired, but there was no lack of appreciation shown by current and former teammates and fans.
It only exemplified how affable the leftarm spinner was, and how highly ranked his contributions to his country were, with Herath emphasised exuberantly as the “World’s best left-arm spinner of all time” on one of the team sponsors’ billboards. If that title is unjustified, he at least retires as Sri Lanka’s second greatest Test bowler, with 433 scalps to his name.
For England this was not only their first Test win in Galle it was also their first win away from home in more than two years, a result that was well-deserved with their batsmen grafting when it was most required, which was ultimately the biggest difference between both teams. Ben Foakes, who only made the team as replacement for the injured Jonny Bairstow, was adjudged the Player of the Match, for his century in England’s first innings that helped his team recover and eventually swung the momentum in his team’s favour.
Winning this Test was always going to be a difficult ask for Sri Lanka, even on a pitch that had reacted in a more friendlier manner to the batsmen than usually accustomed to in Galle and saving it would require their batsmen to show the levels of concentration and application that had been lacking in their first innings. Dimuth Karunaratne and Kaushal Silva, the overnight batsmen, did just that in the first hour of play with Sri Lanka on 50 for no loss despite chances being created by the English bowlers. James Anderson twice caught Karunaratne’s outside edge, but on both occasions the ball dipped just short of the slip fielder. hen one eventually did carry, in Moeen Ali’s first over, Ben Stokes failed to hold on, reprieving Karunaratne who was on 16 at the time. Unfortunately that good first hour did not extend much further.
Sri Lanka were reduced to 98 for the loss of three wickets by lunch, after Leach had Silva trapped leg before wicket, Ali caught Karunaratne off his own bowling and Stokes had Dhananjaya de Silva caught behind for 21 in the final over of the session. Angelo Mathews was reprieved on 16, when Stokes had peppered the former Sri Lankan captain with short balls, and finally forced a mistimed shot, but Anderson at mid wicket put down an easy chance. Kusal Mendis took a more direct approach, with a 77-ball innings that included a six, but just when his confidence had peaked with a sixth boundary, he threw it away, like he has done so often in his career, holding out to Ali at long-off and giving Leach his first wicket.
That ended a 46-run partnership with Mathews, with none of the partnerships that followed bettering that. Captain Dinesh Chandimal, batting at number six because of the time he had spent off the field due to his groin injury, was dropped by Foakes before he scored his first run, before being deceived into playing the wrong line to a Leach delivery that drifted into him, having added a run. Mathews was Sri Lanka’s last hope having scored his 31st Test half-century but after he was the seventh man down, not long after Niroshan Dickwella had been caught behind, it became more apparent that the game would probably not last beyond that session.