England Shine in Sri Lanka

Looking back at the Sri Lanka series, England can take a lot of positives. Captain, Joe Root regained his form scoring 426 runs at an average of 106.50. Bowlers Dom Bess and Jack Leach manged to get 24 of Sri Lanka’s wicket in the whole series.

First innings runs are so important in test matches and in the first test Sri Lanka never got back in the game after being bowled out for 135. Dom Bess shined with the ball taking 5-30. England came out knowing a big score would put them in complete control of the match and they manged to get 421 runs by the time their innings was finished. Joe Root led from the front with 228 which his highest score outside England and his first double century since hitting 226 against New Zealand in 2019. Dan Lawrence making 73 on debut. Sri Lanka came out in the 2nd innings knowing they’d need a lot of runs and need to bowl England cheaply. Sri Lanka amassed 359 with Thirimanne scoring 111 runs but England’s spinners taking control with Jack Leach getting 5-122 by the end of their 2nd innings. England came out for the final time in Galle knowing 73 runs would win them the test. It didn’t get off to the best start. Dom Sibley bowled out for 2 runs, Zak Crawly got 8 and after an incredible 228 runs Joe Root made 1 before being run out. So, it was up to Jonny Bairstow and Dan Lawrence to steer the ship. They did so having only batted for 9.3 overs on the final morning.

Having gone up 1-0 in the series England knew a victory would give them the series win. Sri Lanka came out in the first innings now knowing the importance of first innings runs first-hand. By the time they were all out they had made 381 with Angelo Mathews making a century for them. This was a much improved first innings from Sri Lanka. The top England bowlers were James Anderson getting 6-40 and Mark Wood also getting 3- 84 which included the skipper Chandimal for 56. England came out knowing they’d need to get as close as they could to that Sri Lanka first innings lead. Again, Joe Root made another century getting up to 186 to help his team get 344. The home side came out for the final time knowing that they already had a lead of 37 runs but as it seemed the case too many times Sri Lanka couldn’t make it count and were all out for 126 with Dom Bess and Jack Leach both getting 4 wickets each in the 3rd innings.

England came out knowing 163 runs would win them the match and give them the series too. A bit of resistance was shown by Dom Sibley who grinded out 56 of 114 balls whilst everyone around him fell without doing a lot of damage. It was 4-89 when Jos butler came in and stuck around and with a quickfire 46 off 48 balls saw England to victory with Dom Sibley at the other end.