SCORE BOARD
PERSEVERANCE, bravery and some outrageous skill in the field put England on the cusp of a famous series victory in Sri Lanka.
Keaton Jennings might be in the team to score as many runs as possible but his part in two sensational catches at short leg should certainly be worth their weight in gold once this match is concluded.
Short leg is a position reserved almost exclusively for specialist fielders such as David Boon or James Taylor, or the most junior member of the side, because it can be painful.
You’ve got to squat for hours on end near the wicket as batsmen use you as a cross between a shooting target and a piñata, peppering you with sweeps and pulls in the hope that you might move somewhere else.
But yesterday Jennings was irresistible taking a low, onehanded catch by his left boot to get Dhananjaya de Silva as Jack Leach captured three early wickets to peg Sri Lanka back in their pursuit of a target of 301.
The second was even more astonishing as the Lancs star spotted Dimuth Karunaratne shaping to sweep, anticipated the shot, got his body in the way and somehow managed to parry the ball up for Ben Foakes to catch – it was brave and magical and it sent England wild.
“At the time you get a feeling for what the batter is trying to do and you’re trying to match your movements with where he is trying to hit the ball and generally try and get in the way,” said Jennings.
“He looked to paddle sweep it and just got a bit too much bat on it so it was just at me and I’d love to say I parried it to Foakesy, but I tried to catch it and it just hit me hard and went up. I was really pleased with it.
“I’ve done a lot of work with Colly (fielding coach Paul Collingwood) in at short leg and he’s been on at me in the last two or three days saying, ‘Get a onehander, get a one-hander!’ So it is really nice to get the reward for the hard work we’ve put in.”
Jennings has fielded there before on debut in 2016 and took a catch off Joe Root but in Galle it was Rory Burns who had the job on debut – until he was hit on the back and needed treatment to leave his opening partner with the role.
He added: “You will get hit at times but it is like being in the slips on a green seamer in England, you’re in the game and you feel like you can make and impact so it is an awesome place to be involved.
“You are going to get hit, guys are sweeping, there are bad balls that will be bowled and you’re in the firing line. You’re close, the ball is hard and you’re getting hit, you’ve just got to accept that.”
In between those moments of brilliance, wickets had been hard to come by as Angelo Mathews made 88 for Sri Lanka.
But immediately after tea, England got rid of him and Dilruwan Perera to leave them needing three more scalps with 75 runs to play with after rain cut play short. Overnight: England 290 (Curran 64, Buttler 63, Perera 4-61) and 324-9 (Root
124, Burns 59, Foakes 51no, Dananjaya
6-106) v Sri Lanka 336 (Silva 85, Karunaratne 63, De Silva 59) England 2nd Innings
B Foakes
J Anderson
Total (80.4 overs) ......................... 346 Fall:
Bowling:
Sri Lanka 2nd Innings D Karunaratne K Silva D de Silva K Mendis A Mathews R Silva N Dickwella D Perera
A Dananjaya
Total 7 wkts (65.2 overs) ............. 226 Fall:
To Bat: Bowling: KEA WHIZZ: Jennings celebrates wonder catch with Ben Stokes