ENG vs SL : Jamie Smith, Harry Brook Take England In A Commanding Position On Day 2 Against Sri Lanka

England and Sri Lanka traded blows in an eventful session on the second day of the opening Test at Old Trafford that made up for lost time in the morning. By Tea on Day 2, England nudged ahead following two back-to-back half-century partnerships that brought down the deficit to 60 with six more wickets still left in hand.

Play finally got underway in the second session on Day 2 after the first session was completely lost due to rain and wet outfield. Sri Lanka took less than three overs to strike as Asitha Fernando trapped Ben Duckett leg-before-wicket. The decision on the field was initially not out, which was then overturned by the third umpire following Sri Lanka’s appeal. Asitha could have also gotten Dan Lawrence previously in that over, only for the batter to appeal and get the decision overturned in his favour.

However, the pacer was going through a great spell that also saw him dismiss Ollie Pope very soon into his innings. The England skipper was undone by a delivery that nipped back in to breach his defence and shatter the stumps. Asitha found the outside edge of Joe Root as well in his following over but the ball went between second slip and gully for a boundary.

Dan Lawrence then got going with successive boundaries off Asitha that appeared to ease some nerves, only for Vishwa Fernando to strike at the other end. Lawrence, who was well set, poked at a delivery to edge it behind as the hosts lost their top order.

Following the departure of the former skipper, the onus was on Harry Brook to revive the English innings given he was already well set by then. Harry Brook timed an on drive to perfection off Vishwa whereas Jamie Smith launched a six over long-on in the following over as the tables slowly turned again. Eventually, Harry Brook brought up a crucial half-century that kept England’s hopes alive of fetching a decent lead by close of play.

As had been the case throughout the West Indies series earlier in the summer, the impression after two days of action is that England should yet close out this contest with some ease, but the quality and spirit of the visitors’ bowling has forced them to graft with rather more diligence than might have been the case in previous incarnations of the Bazball era. Asitha in particular was superb throughout his 14 overs, spread across three key spells, including an incisive mid-innings bout of reverse-swing that belied the dank conditions.

After sweating under the covers for several hour during a rainy morning in Manchester, the Old Trafford pitch was ripe for seam bowling when play finally got underway at 1.15pm, and Asitha was primed to cash in. With his bustling approach and a commitment to a full length, he posed problems from the outset, under still-dense cloud cover and with the floodlights in full beam.

His performance went into overdrive from the first ball of his second over, when Dan Lawrence was pinned on the pad and given out lbw by umpire Paul Reiffel. Although that decision was successfully overturned, with the ball shown to be skimming over the bails, the information was stored away and perfectly processed by the bowler.

Two balls later, and now with Ben Duckett on strike, Asitha fired the ball in a good two feet fuller, and was this time the successful reviewee, with the ball shown to be both pitching on and hitting leg stump as Duckett was turned inside-out on his attempted flick across the line.

And in his very next over, Asitha served up the piece de resistance of his new-ball spell, an exceptional wobble-seam delivery, pitching half a foot fuller than the Lawrence ball, and straightening off the pitch to smash into the top of Ollie Pope’s off stump. England’s captain was gone for 6, and at 40 for 2 in the ninth over, England had a bit of a rebuild to undertake.

Root is no stranger to skinny top-order scoreline, of course, and as he bedded in for the long haul, it was Lawrence who initiated England’s counterattack, with a brace of forceful whips through the leg side as Asitha strayed in length. But, having scored just four of his 30 runs through the off side, his vulnerability in the channel was superbly exploited by Vishwa Fernando, who nicked him off after a change of ends, using the breeze from the James Anderson End to push a lifter across his bows from his left-arm angle.

Despite the conditions, Sri Lanka were able to find some appreciable reverse-swing off a typically abrasive Old Trafford pitch, meaning that Root and Harry Brook had to be on their mettle even as their 58-run stand clipped along at more than five an over. Milan Ratnayake, Sri Lanka’s first-day hero, was picked off for three fours in an over as he strained for that swinging full length, but it was Asitha’s return to the attack that would prize the most vital wicket of the day.

Root had reached 42 from 56 balls in another understated display of touch and timing when he was undone in expert fashion, climbing into a wider line from Asitha while still playing for the inswing that had been the feature of his over to that point. This ball, however, held its line and skidded straight on, and Dinesh Chandimal scooped up the low edge to leave England wobbling at 125 for 4.

Harry Brook, however, kept the foot down in his familiarly forceful manner, driving with heavy timing whenever the ball was over-pitched, and working the gaps well, with Sri Lanka’s field still veering towards the defensive given England’s reputation for boundary-hunting. He duly rattled along to a 59-ball half-century, his 14th in just 25 Test innings, and if it was beginning to feel as though something special would be needed to dislodge him, then Jayasuriya obliged shortly after tea.

Jamie Smith, Harry Brook drive England into lead on Day 2 vs SL

Sri Lanka’s left-arm spinner had been diligent without being threatening for much of his day’s work, when out of the blue, he served up something unplayable: a perfectly pitched ripper that gripped and bounced on middle and leg to clip the top of off. Harry Brook could only blink in astonishment – as, indeed, would Chris Woakes, some 18 overs later, when he fell in near-identical fashion, to almost the only other spinning delivery to deviate from the straight all day.

Between those two moments, however, there was Smith, with the third fifty of his fledgling career, and unquestionably the hardest-earned yet. He was forced to graft against the swinging ball early in his innings, although one massive straight six off Jayasuriya signaled his refusal to be cowed, but it was the mid-point of his innings that displayed his savvy – in particular a relative grind through the 40s, after Ratnayake had induced two inside-edges in the space of three deliveries with his probing fourth-stump line outside the rookie’s eyeline.

Woakes was the ideal ally for a defensively minded rebuild, as England – a batter light in Ben Stokes’ absence – focused on batting long, rather than rushing into a lead. Sri Lanka’s tactics arguably failed to adapt to the dominance that their bowlers were exerting in this period, although in reducing the pair to a run-rate of less than three an over in their 52-run stand, they succeeded in keeping themselves in the game.

And when the light began to fail, only minutes after Woakes’ extraction, there was never any thought of Sri Lanka bowling spin in the gloom for the sake of filling out the overs, as had been England’s approach at the same stage on day one. Dhananjaya de Silva marched his players straight off for the pavilion, with six wickets in the bank, and the prospect of a night’s rest for his quicks before they continue their quest to stay in touch with a quietly engrossing contest.

Asitha Fernando produced a compelling display of all-purpose seam and swing bowling, while Prabhat Jayasuriya chipped in with two bewilderingly brilliant deliveries in an otherwise steady display of left-arm spin, as Sri Lanka fought gamely to stay in touch on a gloomy second day of the first Test at Emirates Old Trafford.