Sri Lanka collpases 135 ao as Bess take 5-30, Root’s 66 lead England’s response

International Test Match Series: First Test England vs Sri Lanka at Galle, Sri Lanka won the toss.

Sri Lanka 135ao off 46.1ov    Mathew 27 off 54, 1 four, 1 six, Chandimal 28 off 71, 1 four, Bess 5-30, Broad 3-20, Leach 1-55.

England 127-2 off 41ov Bairstow 47 off 91, 2 four, Root 66no, off 115, 5 fours, Embuldeniya 2-55.

England trail Sri Lanka by 8 runs with 8 wickets remaining

Sri Lanka goes into their series against England as underdogs after a heavy 2-0 defeat in South Africa earlier this month, even losing the second match by 10 wickets after sustaining several injuries to the squad.

Stuart Broads took two early Sri Lankan wickets in a smart new-ball spell, and then Kusal Perera gave Dom Bess a wicket with a reverse sweep. Sri Lanka was in big trouble at 25 for three, but  Angelo Mathews thick edges a cutter to the third man for four which takes him to 6, 000 Test runs, and becomes only the fifth Sri Lankan to reach that milestone after Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene, Sanath Jayasuriya, and Aravinda de Silva. Mathews and Dinesh Chandimal the stand-in captain calmly restored some order, although Chandimal was dropped by Dan Lawrence in the covers just before lunch when Sri Lanka was 65-3. Dom Bess offers Dickwella a long hop, and Dickwella pops it to backward point, where Selby scoops it off the turf, a bad ball and bad shot but good catch. ended up with 5-30after Sri Lanka’s collapse. Shanaka slog sweeps Leach hard in front of square for four, which prompts root to take a man out of the ring of close fielders and sends him down to the midwicket boundary. Shanaka rotates the strike by coming down the pitch with a clever flick through midwicket. Shanaka slog sweeps  Bess delivery into Bairstow’s ankle at short leg as he took evasive action from there it seemed to hit his bottom and pop up to Butler. Bess beats Dilruwan Perera on the outside edge to clean bowl him. Although Bees have been patchy his fourth wicket was his best, doing the batsman with a drift, drip, and turn. With Embuleniya run out by Leah and Hasaranga’s attempted reverse sweep misses by a mile and is clean bowled, Sri Lanka collapse is complete 135 ao.

England lost two early wickets with Bairstow (47no) and Root (66 no) steading the ship from 17-2 to 127-2.

Slow left-arm spinner Embuldeniya took 2 wickets.