England captain Joe Root was charitable enough to create a pathway for Sri Lanka’s beleaguered cricketers to earn some relief as he dropped two catches in the slip cordon, but for the home team even generosity was not appreciated as they crashed to a total of 240 from a secured 173 for 1 in reply to 336 made by the tourists on the second day of the third and final Test at the Sinhalese Sports Club ground in Colombo yesterday.
There was very little or nothing that England could have done after Root let-off the offerings from the bats of Dimuth Karunaratne and Dhananjaya de Silva who went on to post their best scores in the current series while paceman Stuart Broad finished wicket-less on a day he should have had both batsmen.
Karunaratne may not be able to believe his luck after he was given a second life on 2 and then moved on to relish his best of 83 against England while Dhananjaya (73) improved on his previous contribution of 59 made in the second Test.
Sri Lanka had very much to depend on Karunaratne and De Silva to move towards a safe first innings total after England closed their innings at 336 almost in a hurry within the first five overs of the day after resuming from an overnight 312 for 7.
Karunaratne after his initial reprieve, along with Dhanushka Gunathilaka saw off the moving ball unleashed by Broad, but Sri Lanka’s scourge of finding a prescribed opening pair was once again the focus as the first wicket tumbled with the total at 31.
As expected Gunathilaka showed just why he was not a first place opener merely making up the list in the absence of the injury stricken Dinesh Chandimal as he stepped out to deposit a ball from spinner Jack Leach into the stands at long-on only to see the ball nestle in the arms of Keaton Jennings at short-leg.
But overall it was the dismissals of Karunaratne and De Silva that mattered the most as the escape route provided by Root had its limits while Sri Lanka crashed from 173 for 1 to 240 all out with the rest of the batsmen falling like nine pins that included coach Chandika Hathurusinghe’s pet Kusal Mendis who is still struggling to reach a half century in the series.
That Angelo Mathews, Niroshan Dickwella and Dilruwan Perera could not even play the gentle short-pitched rising balls from Ben Stokes that were all edged into the gloves of a hawkish keeper Ben Foakes was another tragedy altogether.
For the trio it was like going back to the simple basics on what is being touted as a slow pitch that marked three of the most important wickets for England to fall to a non-spinner.
