England 336 (Bairstow 110, Stokes 57, Sandakan 5-95) and 110 for 4 (Stokes 32*, Buttler 38*) lead Sri Lanka 240 (Karunaratne 83, Dhananjaya 73, Rashid 5-49, Stokes 3-30) by 206 runs
The sight of Suranga Lakmal throwing his water bottler to the ground in frustration spoke volumes for Sri Lanka’s fortunes on the third morning in Colombo.
Lakmal, the Sri Lanka captain, had watched his spinners drag his side back into contention with four wickets in the first hour of play.
But then he saw Ben Stokes, who had just driven a catch to extra-cover, reprieved after replays showed the left-arm wrist-spinner, Lakshan Sandakan, had over-stepped. Instead of a taking a key wicket, Sri Lanka had instead conceded a single to a no-ball.
To make matters worse, Stokes survived in similar fashion a few minutes later. On that occasion Stokes, by now on 32, appeared to have edged straight to slip only for replays to show, once again, that Sandakan had overstepped. Lakmal, a reluctant captain anyway, buried his head in his hands. His side could ill afford such self-inflicted injury.
They could prove to be key moments in what may well prove to be a low-scoring Test. By lunch, Stokes and Jos Buttler had added 71 for England’s fifth-wicket and extended their side’s lead beyond 200.
Buttler was easily the most fluent batsmen of the session. England managed only one boundary – a clip through midwicket for four by Jonny Bairstow – in the first 70 minutes of play and were in some danger of reverting to the stuttering, timid mess that has characterised much of their batting on previous tours of Asia.
But Buttler, skipping down the pitch to Sandakan, in particular, scored at a run a ball, turning decent balls into full tosses and disrupting the length of the bowlers. At one stage, Sandakan conceded four boundaries in 10 deliveries. In the context of this match, that is a feast of runs.
There were some nervous moments along the way. Buttler was given out on 22 – an LBW decision won by Dhananjaya de Silva – only for Stokes to insist he utilise a review which showed the ball would have bounced over the stumps.
But the partnership will have done a great deal to ease England’s nerves. At 39 for four, they led by just 135 and were in danger of squandering a chance for their first ever whitewash victory in Asia (in series of three matches or more) and their first anywhere away from home since 1963.
Resuming with a lead of 99 (they were three without loss to add to their first-innings advantage of 96), Dilruwan Perera struck with the first delivery of the day: Keaton Jennings, having planted his front leg, trapped by one that skidded on without turning.
With Rory Burns falling in almost identical fashion a few overs later, Bairstow becoming the latest batsman to fall to a sharp catch at short-leg – Bairstow turned one off his hips nicely enough only to see Kaushal Silva, on as a substitute, cling on to a sharp catch – and Joe Root giving a return catch to left-arm spinner Malinda Pushpakumara as he attempted to work him against the spin, England were starting to look uncomfortable.
But Stokes and Buttler – with some help from Sandakan’s ill-discipline – had eased those concerns by the interval.bossing it.