England were lagging behind by conceding a lead of 46 runs in the first innings when they came out to bat on the third day of the test match being played in Pallekele. They started badly as they lost Jack Leach in the very second over of the morning. Rory Burns and Jennings then came together and put up a decent partnership of 70 runs. Rory Burns has been quite impressive in the series and might make the spot his own if he continues playing like that. Rory Burns brought up his first half century in test cricket before he was trapped leg before. The captain Joe Root played brilliantly and brought up his 15th test ton in the conditions which supported spinners a lot. He played a classy innings and made sure England had a decent total on the board. He was well supported by Jos Buttler an later Foakes brought up his 50 as well. Foakes has had a dream start to his test career.
It was expected that spinners will dominate the match and they did take all the wickets falling in the second innings of England. Akila Dananjaya took as many as 6 wickets while Dilruwan Parera chipped in with 2.
England did manage to stretch the lead to 278 runs and they still have one wicket in hand. They are in a strong position to win the match as batting won't be easy in the fourth innings.
In another test match being played between Pakistan and New Zealand in Abu Dhabi, Pakistan dominated the day 1 by bowling out New Zealand for just 153 runs. New Zealand never really looked on top of the game as they kept loosing wickets at regular intervals. They managed a decent partnership between Kane Williamson and Henry Nicholas but after the fall of those two wickets, the whole team tumbled. Kane Williamson was their best batter as he put up a decent 63 runs while Henry Nicholas gave him good support and contributed with 28 runs.
For Pakistan almost all the bowlers enjoyed bowling and shared wickets among themselves. Yasir Shah was the pick of the bowlers as he claimed 3 wickets while Mohammad Abbas, Hasan Ali and Haris Sohail shared 6 wickets among themselves with each of them taking 2.
Pakistan in reply lost two wickets early but Azhar Ali and Haris Sohail made sure that they don't loose any further. As many as 12 wickets fell in one day at Abu Dhabi which is a rarity as Abu Dhabi pitch is batsmen friendly and we are used to see scores in excess of 500 here.
Let's see what day 2 holds for the cricket lovers.
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