Lunch Sri Lanka 336 and 93 for 3 (Karunaratne 54*, Mathews 28*) need a further 208 runs to beat England 290 and 346 (Root 123, Foakes 65*, Burns 59, Dananjaya 6-115)
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Jack Leach uprooted three Sri Lanka wickets in the space of 14 runs, but the second Dimuth Karunaratne fifty of the game, and his unbeaten 67-run partnership with Angelo Mathews, restored a little calm to Sri Lanka’s innings.
In a run chase of 301, the hosts were still precariously placed at 93 for 3, however, with not a lot of batting to come. This ongoing partnership, you feel, will have to push Sri Lanka the majority of the way to the target, if they are going to have any chance.
Leach’s three wickets came in successive overs, sending England and their shirtless hordes in the ground into minor raptures. When he reduced Sri Lanka to 26 for 3 inside the first eight overs of Sri Lanka’s innings, it truly appeared as if the match could hurtle to its conclusion by lunch.
Kaushal Silva was first to go, coming down the track sixth delivery he faced, failing to get to the pitch of the ball, then scrambled as it spun past his outside edge. Ben Foakes, who has kept like a dream all series, collected cleanly and whipped the bails off in a flash.
Dhananjaya de Silva then attempted to turn a Leach delivery on the stumps into the leg side, but managed only to get a thick edge to short leg, where a wrong-footed Keaton Jennings reacted brilliantly to snatch the ball, low to his left. Kusal Mendis played perhaps the most pained knock of all. Having been dismissed by Leach in each of the three previous innings, he attempted to slog him over cow corner at one stage and missed, then was out missing another sweep – England successfully reviewing a not out lbw decision. He was out for 1.
Karunaratne was virtually faultless in his 90-ball 54 not out, though there were still one or two scares. He worked plenty of singles off his pads, ran some quick twos, and generally batted with zen – something he has been very good at.
He survived a caught behind appeal off James Anderson in the third over, with replays showing he hadn’t got near the ball, and then had a close call on 21 when a thick outside edge off Moeen Ali flew between keeper and slip. The rest of his innings was fuss-free, until a moment of drama when he was given out lbw to Rashid in the last over before lunch – but Karunaratne reviewed and the ball was projected to be missing the stumps comfortably.
Mathews’ approach en route to 28 was similar to that of Karunaratne, except he swept and reverse-swept more. Leach almost had him for 7, but the tough chance low to Ben Stokes’ right at slip didn’t stick. He scored all but six of his runs in singles.
Earlier in the day, Foakes and James Anderson had tonked 22 runs, taking the lead to 300, and England’s total to 346. Dilruwan Perera broke the stand, bowling Anderson off the toe of the bat immediately after taking the second new ball.