Eng v SL 2nd Test Review: England trounce Lankan spirit to lead 2-0

Durham is one of the happy hunting grounds for England in their own conditions. With a no defeat record at the venue, England took on Sri Lanka in the 2nd Test of the 3-Test match series at Chester le Street, Durham.

Having won the toss, England skipper Alastair Cook was absolutely certain about what he had to do. He opted to bat first in a bid to replicate the heroics of his team in the first Test. The English batsmen responded well as Alex Hales backed up his first Test knock with another 83 and Joe Root got in the mix of things by getting an 80 on day 1 of the match.

Day 2 saw Moeen Ali emerge as the unlikely hero of the innings. He started to accelerate the pace of the innings and batted with the tail to reach his second century in Tests. He did not stop just then and brought up his maiden 150 in Test cricket. England skipper decided to declare the innings at a gigantic score of 498/9. Sri Lanka had a horrid time with the bat and lost as many as 8 wickets for just 90 runs by the end of day two.

England took just a little less than 5 overs to wrap up the Lankan innings on 101 with Broad picking up 4/40. For the second successive time in the series, the visitors were forced to follow-on. However, this time, the batsmen showed some resilience and put up much better show. Kaushal Silva scored a gritty 60 and was well supported by skipper Angelo Mathews, who struck 80 off 105 balls. By the end of the days play, Sri Lanka were poised at 309/5 with Milind Siriwardana and Dinesh Chandimal at the crease.

On the fourth day, Sri Lanka lost Siriwardana on 35 when James Anderson bagged the wicket. However, that was the only positive for the hosts in the first session. Dinesh Chandimal brought up his half century and was then dropped on 69 by Johnny Bairstow. Rangana Herath gave strong support to Chandimal and the duo kept the wickets intact. Chandimal then brought up his 6th Test century, and first against England.

Sri Lanka lost just one wicket in the first session and put on 94 runs. The post lunch session saw Herath being the aggressor and he brought up a well fought half century too. However, it was only matter of time when James Anderson found him plumb in front of the wickets on 61. Shaminda Eranga couldn’t do much to a swinging delivery from Anderson that clipped his off stump. Anderson added yet another five-wicket haul to his name.

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With 8 wickets down, Chandimal knew the value of runs. He tried to pile up some quick runs but was cleaned up by Stuart Broad. The magnificent innings saw Chandimal score 126 off 207 balls with 13 fours and a six. The last pair, Suranga Lakmal (11) and Nuwan Pradeep (13*), put on 22 runs before Lakmal became Woakes’ second victim as Sri Lanka finished with 475/10.

The target for England was a mere 79 that looked like a cakewalk. The second over of the England’s second innings saw Alastair Cook reach the milestone of 10000 runs when he clipped the length ball by Pradeep for a four. He became the first Englishman to reach there and 12th overall in the history of the game and the youngest ever to do so. Cook and Hales continued batting with ease as the hapless Lankans were waiting for the inevitable. The gutsy effort by Sri Lanka with the batting made sure that the play went till the last session of the day 4. Soon after the tea break, England lost Alex Hales as Milind Siriwardana yet again proved to be the partnership breaker.

Nick Compton, who needed some time out in the middle badly after having been through a lean patch in the recent times joined the skipper. Cook (47*) and Compton (22*) then paraded along to see the hosts win by 9 wickets and take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series.

The Test lasted for 4 days. How often do we get to see that in the modern day cricket? The way Sri Lanka fought back has set the final Test as an exciting prospect. However, it would be inconsequential though with England having already captured the series 2-0. The 3rd Test starts on June 9.

Brief Scores:

England: 498/9 decl in 132 overs (Moeen Ali 155*, N Pradeep 4/107)

Sri Lanka: 101/10 in 43.3 overs (K Mendis 35, Broad 4/40)

Sri Lanka: (following on) 475/10 in 128.2 overs (Chandimal 126, Anderson 5/58)

England: 80/1 (Cook 47*, Siriwardana 1/37)

Man of the match: James Anderson