The 2nd Test between Sri Lanka and England looks to be heading towards a tense and exciting conclusion after Sri Lanka just about came out on top following a day’s play that swung back and forth to the advantage of both sides.
Starting the day on 26-1, Sri Lanka quickly lost nightwatchman Pushpakumara early on but were then boosted by a partnership of 96 by Karunaratne and Dhananjaya de Silva before a moment of brilliance by Ben Stokes helped put England into the ascendency either side of lunch. However, some wayward bowling by England coupled with some dogged batting from the Sri Lankan lower order, in particular, Roshan Silva, helped them post a 1st innings total of 336 and a lead of 46 runs.
Return of the game changer?
Since his troubles outside a Bristol nightclub in September 2017, Ben Stokes has struggled to re-find his very best form. Dropped for the tours of Australia and New Zealand while a police investigation was carried out, he then picked up an injury to miss the Pakistan Test series and Australia ODI series that followed. He played his part in England’s victories over India in both white ball and red ball cricket this summer with perhaps his best moment coming when he dismissed Virat Kohli on the 4th morning of the 1st Test to all but secure an opening win for England. He dug in with the bat and played admirably stubborn innings against India’s attack without ever really hitting the kind of heights we know that he is capable of.
England need the swashbuckling, match-winning Stokes back and especially in difficult and alien conditions a man with his unique skill set can be crucial to gaining hard fought wins. Today he proved that he still has those qualities with a brilliant piece of fielding to run out Karunaratne and end a partnership that threatened to take the game away from England. Just 2 overs later and he was at it again, this time pouching a chance at 1st slip that he must have struggled to see coming passed keeper Foakes before sticking out a big left hand to take a super reaction catch. These were the kind of moments that England sorely missed during their last Ashes series where an already depleted bowling attack and increasingly worn out Joe Root looked short of the kind of inspiration that was required to break through Australia’s batting line-up. The hope now is that Stokes’ performance on the field can somehow fire him up to contribute a match-winning innings with the bat. England have already found a novel way of moving him out of the number 3 position by deciding to send in Jack Leach as a night watchman for opener Keaton Jennings (not something I’ve ever seen before). Now would be the perfect time for Stokes to take the game away from Sri Lanka and potentially seal a series win for England. It would also stand him in good stead for the remainder of the winter, the IPL (he was terrible in the 2018 tournament) and the summer ahead which includes both the World Cup and Ashes for which England will expect every man to do his duty and none less than their talisman Ben Stokes.
England’s spinners were like kids in a Kandy shop
The Pallekele International Cricket Stadium in Kandy has provided turn from ball 1 of the match and it is therefore no surprise that baring the very first wicket of the game and the run out mentioned above that all the other 18 wickets have fallen to spinners. However, despite the 9 wickets that England's spinners took today I felt that they generally let the big turn on offer lull them into the habit of not bowling a consistent line and length. Instead, they became over excited and looked to bowl for the miracle ball that would turn 2 foot and bamboozle the batsmen. Leach, Moeen and Rashid did beat the bat on many occasions with balls that turned big but while it looks good for the camera to be fizzing these balls past the edge on a regular basis the reality of the situation is that you'd need 2 bats to actually knick one of them! It was fairly evident that Root himself was not satisfied with his spinners display as he brought himself onto bowl 8 overs despite the plethora of options available to him.
Furthermore, Joe Root was once again culpable in allowing Sri Lanka's batsmen to milk easy singles as a result of the in-out field that he set for his spinners. As I mentioned, in a blog about the 1st Test, I would much rather have the Sri Lankan batsmen looking to use their feet to hit over the top of the infield as opposed to being able to cut off the odd boundary. If a player wants to charge down the pitch to a bowler who is turning it a foot and half then there is every chance that he will run straight passed it or if he does make contact it will be miscued. I find it strange that a side that is so aggressive with bat in hand is simultaneously so passive when in the field.
<grammarly-btn>While taking 3 wickets, Rashid was once again unable to bowl with any great control or consistency. I can't fault the man for trying, he genuinely looks to be giving it his all but he still seems a little anxious at times and while there weren't too many bad balls today I did think that he bowled too wide of the off-stump to cause batsmen many problems. Granted he does have a good googly up his sleeve and that was used as the surprise ball coming into the batsman but equally the majority of turn on this surface has been fairly slow and Rashid himself could probably do with bowling 3-5mph quicker on a surface like this as well as targetting the stumps more often. Had the spinners got the batsmen to play and play in a hurry, I think that England could have ended up with a 50-60 run as opposed to a deficit. In what looks likely to be a close game it will be the little things that could well define the end result.
Turning Silva into Gold
Roshen Silva is not a player that I've seen play before this game and if it weren't for the injury sustained by Chandimal then I doubt that I would have had the pleasure on this tour either. However, he followed in the footsteps of other also-ran players in Ben Foakes and Keaton Jennings by playing a gem of an innings today that might just allow his team to level the series.
Rather than looking to be ultra-aggressive in the manner that England's batsmen were on day 1, Roshan was content to nudge and nurdle the singles, keep the strike and scoreboard ticking and generally navigate his side out of a very difficult position. When he came to the crease, Sri Lanka had lost 3 wickets for 19 runs either side of lunch and were in real danger of capitulating for a score under 200. As well as his busy approach to accumulating runs, he ensured he played the spinners with exceptionally soft hands, with edges and balls sliding off the face of his bat landing short of the waiting slip fielder on more than one occasion. There is a lesson to be learned here for England's batsmen tomorrow as they first look to wipe out the 1st innings deficit and then seek to build a commanding lead - trust your technique, look to bat long and don't throw your wicket away! Is it merely a coincidence that the best innings of this series so far have all been played by batsmen who in other circumstances might not have been involved or is that when you are fighting for your place in the side you tend to have a clarity of mind that can focus you to the task at hand?
The only small blip on Roshan Silva's record today was the bizarre set of circumstances that saw him gift England 5 penalty runs. The incident occurred when he cut a ball through 3rd man and assumed that it would go for 4. He sauntered up the pitch to give his batting partner the obligatory fist bump only to find the ball had not made it to the boundary. The batsmen then decided to try and take 2 runs but in doing so Silva failed to ground his bat when running the 1st run. England were awarded 5 penalty runs on the basis that it was a deliberate attempt by the 2 Sri Lankans to manipulate the strike. Not grounding your bat when running is a schoolboy error, however, I think the idea that this was a deliberate ploy to manipulate the strike is somewhat of a strange call by the umpires. The batsmen in question had not attempted to do that (through legal means) during their time at the crease and besides which had they really not wanted Dananjaya on strike they could simply not have run at all! I guess it's always nice to learn a new law of the game but let's hope that the result doesn't end up in England's favour by less than 5 runs!
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