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And so does Crawley. Total gift to SL that, terrible batting

England don't have that much batting either. Root's been on the downhill for a while and the rest are inexperienced, inconsistent or just not good enough. Stokes is the only world class batting performer of the last two years, and he's not playing. I wouldn't be certain England will get a lead here.

A hundred lead would be handy. It's not that many runs to get...

The middle order batters look ok on paper, with Bairstow, Buttler and Root. Though they look better on a list of ODI players.

Its looking pretty easy out there at the moment.

England turning it around. But the rest of the batting could go either way.

Got the feeling these two are blunting the attack in preparation for a Buttler double hundred.

After endless overs of toothless bowling, Embuldeniya gets one that tears off the surface. Keeper thinks hes got him, but there is no edge there. At least some encouragement after 85 runs of desolation.

In fact there not only is no edge, its probably missing a second bat alongside. Think Dickwella needs to go to specsavers.

A more sensible approach to the batting from the experienced Yorkshiremen, by the looks of it

I spotted a stat earlier that said that 8 of the 12 wickets taken fell to attacking shots

Durhamfootman wrote:I spotted a stat earlier that said that 8 of the 12 wickets taken fell to attacking shots

More execution than approach created the downfalls.

Thirimanne got out from a buffet ball on the leg stump not making any attempt to keep it down with a fielder placed for the shot. Mendis got a ball that wobbled and cut from the surface, but the conviction in his forward press was non-existent, which I guess you can expect from a player with 5 ducks in a row. Perera just didnt get over the bounce with a sweep, Matthews just slashed at a ball that looked to me wide enough to punch through the off side for me but he went at it wildly and no control in his techniquee. Chandimal slashed a very wide ball with static feet and no balance; he was lucky to survive a carbon copy of his wicket not long before. Dickwella got out to a rank long hop somehow. Perera tried to take on Bess and missed the ball. The comic run out just added to the clownish atmosphere.

You will here this a lot this series, but we cant really rationalize these scores in another other way; SL are an atrocious test team. England really didnt need to do much, even when the top two SL bats got a start and conditions looked fairly tame, both tried their best to get out.

And while Sibley (who has massive question marks on his ability to play spin, which his dismissal wont help) and Crawley (only really he knows what that shot he got out to was) failed, SL really havent bowled anything that has tested England.

Any half decent bat who maintains concentration for long enough can get a score against this line up. I counted probably 2 maybe 3 balls where the bowler gets it right and the batsman is challenged. Other than that its tame going through the motions stuff mixed with far, far too many balls that go awry.

The pitch isnt dead, there is something there, but nothing to over-ride the gulf in ability between teams. England should target 500 plus and to be back in the hotel by th end of day 3 having won the test.

I misread the scorecard, thought it was 185 not 135. Ouch.

Agree with Sussex. Sri Lan I a look awful.

Root 99 not out at lunch. After a poor 2020, that'll help his confidence. England looking well on top.

Quality of opposition aside, Joe Root is a player in recent times who always looks like his mind is wandering and leads to him throwing away scores and starts regularly. In this test he's come in and looked like Joe of old. No ridiculous attempts to manufacture shots or lose stuff creeping in as he loses concentration after a start. Maybe the long rest in 2020 bodes well for him. He's played very well, you can only play what you are facing, and he's looked supremely comfortable. The heat might start to tire him out after a while, but no reason why he shouldn't target the double, SL really havent come close to putting anything more than the odd single ball pressure on him.

Lawrence has played pretty faultless too. Although SL again havent really posed him any threats. Not many debutants have such an opportunity to make a big score first up, he looks so comfortable out there I'd actually be surprised if he didnt make a hundred. Again bigger challenges await, but you can read a certain amount of positives when a debutant gets down to it with minimal fuss. Many players let nerves fail them or what not; Lawrence has just got in and played everything on merit.

If this partnership sucks the life out of SL, then Buttler walking in afterwards could get a bit messy for them. Embuldeniya is tying his best to keep things tidy, but everytime he pushes to attack he releases it, and his supporting cast are neither tidy nor posing any wicket threat.

One of those days you can only see batsman getting out if they lose their minds or fail to execute.

Embuldeniya is starting to get a bit ragged now. New ball has been taken and there is a bit more bounce off the wicket to contend with, but the SL bowlers are just starting to lose control a lot more. Really the captain needs to be taking his two bowlers aside here and telling them they need to focus on building some pressure, string the dots togther. At the moment there is just too many release balls, and Root and Lawrence are seeing it like a beach ball

There is that extra bounce in play. Lawrence gets one that bounces just that bit more, takes the glove and has to go. There had been hints he was just starting to lose focus, having been shelled off an admittedly tough chance from a bottom edge while trying to mow the ball out the ground.... this time hes not as lucky.

Im guessing Buttler will take a look till tea, then we might see some fireworks after