England’s Steven Finn and James Anderson cleaned up Sri Lanka’s tail as England defeated their opponents by an innings and 88 runs at Headingley on Saturday.
Sri Lanka, following on, were 116 for seven at tea on a rain-interrupted third day — still 91 runs shy of making England bat again.
However, after resumption, they mananged to put on just three more runs before being bowled out.
Finn picked up two wickets in an over, while Anderson took the final wicket of Nuwan Pradeep to wrap up the game.
Anderson, England’s all-time leading Test wicket-taker, finished with figures of five for 29 to add to his return of five for 16 in Sri Lanka’s meagre first innings 91.
His Saturday haul included Kusal Mendis, who rode his luck to make 53 — an innings where he gave four chances.
At tea, Lahiru Thirimanne was 15 not out and Dushmantha Chameera nought not out, with more bad weather seemingly Sri Lanka’s lone hope of avoiding going 1-0 down in this three-Test series.
Sri Lanka resumed Saturday on one without loss.
The overcast conditions that greeted Sri Lanka were similar to those in which they collapsed on Friday when they were undone by the new ball-pairing of Anderson and Stuart Broad, ably supported by wicket-keeper Jonathan Bairstow, who held five catches to add to the 140 he made on his Yorkshire home ground in England’s first innings 298.
Dimuth Karunaratne avoided a pair on Saturday but fell for seven when caught head-high by Bairstow after the left-hander got an outside edge to a near-unplayable Anderson ball that bounced and cut away off the seam. The same combination then accounted for Kaushal Silva.
Either side of the wickets, Mendis, who like Karunaratne made a first-innings duck, drove both Anderson and fast bowler Steven Finn for well-struck fours.
But he was fortunate on 23 when a hard edge off Anderson went through the hands of leaping third slip James Vince.
Mendis was reprieved again on 29 when he edged Finn only for a diving Bairstow, in a rare blemish this match, to drop the low one-handed catch.
And off what turned out to be the last ball before lunch, Mendis should have been out for 47 when he edged a seemingly comfortable chance off Broad to third slip only for Vince to again put him down.
SCORES IN BRIEF
ENGLAND: First Innings 298
SRI LANKA: First Innings 91
SRI LANKA: Second Innings 119 all out (Mendis 53, Thirimanne 15 not out; Anderson 5-29, Finn 3-26)
Result: England won by an innings and 88 runs.
Player-of-the-match: J Anderson.
Source: The Daily Star
