Sri Lanka 196 and 53 for 2 (Mathews 34*, Chandimal 15*) need a further 347 runs to beat England 427 and 251
Karunaratne was one of the batters to fall, bounced out by Olly Stone with the lunch break approaching, as England were made to work hard for their rewards in front of sparsely populated stands.
England’s other success was the removal of nightwatcher Prabath Jayasuriya – dubbed the “lightwatcher” after he walked out in the late afternoon on day three with the gloom enveloping Lord’s. Sri Lanka were still a long way from thinking about victory, with 347 runs needed for a world-record chase, but the dogged 55-run stand between Karunaratne and Angelo Mathews was a welcome show of fibre with the series at stake.
Karunaratne was not without some fortune early on. Having clipped the first ball of the morning, bowled by Chris Woakes, for two, he survived a review for lbw off the second as replays showed the delivery had pitched fractionally outside leg stump. He was still on 25 when a slash at Gus Atkinson, bowling from the Pavilion End, evaded the diving Joe Root at slip; on 29, England thought they had him caught behind off Atkinson, only to burn another review.
Woakes removed Jayasuriya after an obdurate innings of 4 from 41 balls, a thick-edged drive well held low at second slip by Harry Brook. Karunaratne then survived again when turning the ball leg side and being sent back by his new partner, Mathews – Stone’s underarm from midwicket close to running him out as he attempted to regain his ground.
Sri Lanka’s senior opener, with just one fifty from 13 previous innings in England, was largely watchful in his approach, although he did take three boundaries off an over from Atkinson: a cover drive followed up with a controlled pull, before a low edge flew between slip and gully. Another steer down to deep third off Matt Potts took him to 49 before a tap to point allowed him to raise his bat for the first time on tour.
There was another close call with the running in the same over, as Karunaratne narrowly beat a throw from the deep after Mathews called for a third.
The fourth-wicket stand kept England at bay as Pope shuffled through his options, bringing on Shoaib Bashir for a spell from the Nursery End. Mathews greeted the spinner by jumping down and hitting his fourth ball for four through mid-on, but there was turn off the straight for Bashir, who might have removed Sri Lanka’s No. 4 as he attempted to sweep but for a tickle of inside edge before the ball hit the pads.
Having briefly tried a short-ball attack with Stone from the Pavilion End, Pope switched his fastest bowler around to replace Bashir with half an hour of an extended morning session to go. Karunaratne had gone into his shell, adding just five runs from 31 deliveries since reaching fifty, and he was eventually dislodged when gloving a lifter through to Smith down the leg side.
Dinesh Chandimal saw his first delivery deflect off the back of the bat through backward square leg, with Mathews then cuffing a pull wide of the diving leg slip as Stone continued to hit the middle of the pitch.
Alan Gardner is a deputy editor at ESPNcricinfo. @alanroderick
Source: ESPN Crickinfo