England 342 (Foakes 107, Dilruwan 5-75) and 111 for 3 (Jennings 60*, Stokes 14*) lead Sri Lanka 203 (Mathews 52, Moeen 4-66) by 250 runs
Sri Lanka struck three times on the second morning, removing Rory Burns, Moeen Ali and Joe Root, but England continued to swell their mammoth lead through a Keaton Jennings half-century, on a wearing pitch. At a venue in which the highest successful chase is 99, they are now 250 runs ahead, with seven wickets still in hand.
In comparison to their top order’s manic approach on the first day, England played a measured brand of cricket. In the 30 overs they faced in the morning, they scored only 73 – a scoring rate of only 2.43. Jennings set the tone, his 60 not out off 130 balls featuring only four boundaries – three of them via some variation of the cut shot.
No batsman appeared completely comfortable, but Jennings was the least troubled of the lot. At lunch, he had Ben Stokes for company – Stokes having steadily grown in confidence through his 29-ball stay so far.
Sri Lanka probed relentlessly, desperate to secure a target of less than 300, daunting though even that total would be. Offspinner Dilruwan Perera was their best again. He delivered tight lines, and occasionally gained drastic turn to beat the bat. He raised several appeals, varied his pace, slipped in some darters, floated plenty up. His only reward was the wicket of Moeen, who in attempting to loft the ball down the ground, managed to mis-hit it to Rangana Herath at mid on. The slow scoring rate was partly Dilruwan’s doing – he conceded his runs at only 1.88 an over.
Herath, hampered slightly by the fact that four of England’s top five are left-handers, claimed the wicket of Joe Root for the second time in the match. He pitched on on middle and off, spun it away appreciably, and drew a thin edge that was well-snaffled by wicketkeeper Niroshan Dickwella.
The wicket of Burns came via a run out – the second time in the Test Burns has been out in what he might feel are slightly unfortunate circumstances, having been caught down the leg-side on the first morning. He pushed a ball to Dimuth Karunaratne at mid-on, and called Jennings through for a run, but the fielder swooped on the ball and threw down the stumps, to find Burns half a metre short. He had made 23 off 65, having struggled against Dilruwan in particular for a significant portion of his innings.
Source: ESPN Crickinfo