Stokes foil Sri Lanka resilience with exceptional brightness

When Sri Lanka seemed to be running away with the honors of the second morning on the Pallekele test, Ben Stokes simply turned the session for England as they picked up two late tickets to reduce hosts to 139 for 4 at lunch.

England started the day with centers and held in the first 70 minutes, but could not get more than the vicket. They examined the call against Karunaratne in the second day, but it was revealed that Jack Leach's delivery was excessive, in order to even escape. However, they did not have to wait long for a breakthrough, as Malinda Puspakumara went to a man stationed in the midvicket in a third career.

England have been assigned by Moeen Ali, Leach and Adil Rashid, but Sri Lanka's third-place Dimut Karunaratne (63) and Dhananjaja de Silva (57) are out on a test run in the test match to wear English bovlers. The duo hardly played a fake blow in a 96-year partnership with patients, as they rescued Sri Lanka along a track that offers a lot of help for slower players. Rasheed struggled with his length, but the couple negotiated about some nice deliveries of Leach and Moeen on their way to their fifties.

After bowling about 20 spins – 17 of them in its opening – England returned James Anderson in an attempt to break his stubborn third career. However, they did not have such happiness with their experienced pacer.

England needed a great deal to find the opening, and Ben Stokes gave two to turn the session for his team within ten minutes. The comprehensive debut was the first to strike a direct blow at the end of the goalkeeper – with only one goal to reach – to find Karunaratne who struggles without his pain that broke the third career of four shy lives. Two interruptions later, he stuck his left hand to pull the low exterior edge of Kusal Mendis and the Shriki bowl another powerful blow before the break at the session.

In the meantime, Dhananjaya raised his half-century with a pull to the fence of Stokes. Former Captain Angelo Matthews secured the company after Sri Lanka left for lunch with 139 points for 4, and still 146 behind the first innings with a score of 285 guests.

Short Results: Sri Lanka 139/4 (Dimut Karunaratne 63, Dhananjaia de Silva 57 *, Jack Leach 2-33) track England, 285, in 146 minutes.

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