Jennings vows to carry on putting

Keaton Jennings is happy to continue putting himself in the firing line for England after yesterday turning the tide of the second Test against Sri Lanka with two remarkable pieces of fielding at short leg.

The hosts ended day four in Kandy seven down for 226, still 75 short of the winning line, with England’s hand considerably strengthened by Jennings’ incredible reactions. He had already made a highly-improbable catch off Jack Leach’s bowling, a onehanded reflex grab as his body tumbled in the opposite direction, when he conjured something even more intrepid and instinctive.

First anticipating a Dimuth Karunaratne sweep, he followed the trajectory and gamely flung a hand in the way of the cleanly-hit stroke. The ball popped to wicketkeeper Ben Foakes, who completed the dismissal, and though Jennings’ part will not be recorded in the scorecards it was his effort which broke the biggest partnership of a nervy day.

“I’d love to say I parried it to Foaksey but I genuinely tried to catch it. It just hit me really hard,” he confessed.

“You get a feeling of what the batter is looking to do, you try to watch his movements and match your movements with where he’s trying to hit the ball. You generally try and get in the way.

“I saw him go down to paddle and just set off running. To get that wicket for the team is really cool.”