Root puts England in box seat as rain stalls push

Sri Lanka had the early wicket of Jonny Bairstow caught by Kusal Mendis at slip for 47

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

England Captain Joe Root celebrates his 18th Test hundred

England Captain Joe Root produced a fluent unbeaten century, his 18th in 98 Tests, to guide his team to a commanding position in the first Moose Cup Daraz Test against Sri Lanka played at the Galle International Cricket Stadium yesterday.

By stumps on a truncated day two brought forward by rain England in reply to Sri Lanka’s first innings score of 135, had batted themselves into an impregnable position scoring 320-4 to lead by 185 runs with six first innings wickets intact.

Root batted throughout the 53 overs that were possible during the day to carry his overnight score from 66 to 168 not out, scored off 254 balls, inclusive of 12 fours. It was the highest score made by an England batsman in Sri Lanka, beating Kevin Pieterson’s 151 at the P. Sara Oval in 2012. Batting with Root was Jos Buttler on seven.

Rain delayed the start by 70 minutes and returned at the tea break to wipe out the final session of play. In between, Root played a masterly innings on a slow turning and bouncing track to bring up his century off 163 balls in the second ball of the afternoon after going to lunch unbeaten on 99. 

A feature of Root’s knock was his impeccable footwork against the spinners he was either right to the pitch of the ball or right back picking up runs at will and not allowing the bowlers to dictate terms to him. It was a class act by the England skipper.

England lost Jonny Bairstow as early as the second over without adding to his overnight score of 47 when he edged a catch to Kusal Mendis at slip off the second ball he faced for the day giving Lasith Embuldeniya his third wicket of the innings.

That early success was short-lived for Sri Lanka as Dan Lawrence launched his Test career in style getting to a fifty on his debut. Lawrence showed no nervousness and on a difficult Galle pitch never looked in trouble and batted with ease in the company of his captain to raise a partnership of 173 off 259 balls for the fourth wicket to completely shift the momentum of the Test heavily towards England.

Despite the turn and bounce, Root and Lawrence were bold enough to counterattack Sri Lanka’s spinners with some smart batting and good footwork forcing the opposition to bowl where they wanted them to.

Lawrence looked good for a century when he fell for a well compiled 73 off 150 balls (6 fours, 1 six) to the second new ball which bounced quite unexpectedly from Dilruwan Perera and took his glove for Mendis to gobble it at leg slip.

Mendis, who fielded in the close-in position throughout, was at the receiving end of Root’s sweep shot which he played, constantly getting hit on several parts of his body. One painful blow he took on his left shoulder in the last over before the tea break forced him to leave the field.

Left-armer Embuldeniya was the pick of the Lankan bowlers, sending down the bulk of the overs – 38 – and has captured each of the three wickets to fall with Perera picking up one, but overall Embuldeniya hasn’t had much support from his fellow spinners on a surface where the ball is doing enough to keep everyone interested.

Debutant Dan Lawrence and Joe Root during their partnership of 173