Sri Lanka show grit and guile – but Smith gives England the upper hand

Highly competitive days have been few and far between in this summer’s Tests. A combination of a strong England team, advantageous home conditions and ill-prepared touring sides has resulted in some one-sided displays, and a sense of unease with Euro 2024 and the Olympics dominating, but the second day at Old Trafford offered 57 overs of highly competitive, cut-and-thrust, watchable cricket.
After rain had washed out the opening two hours, England moved into a first-innings lead deep into the final session, but lost six wickets getting there. The bearded and bustling Asitha Fernando caused problems with new ball and old, taking three wickets, and the left-arm spinner Prabath Jayasuriya produced two beauties — of which a predecessor, Rangana Herath, would have been proud — to castle Harry Brook and Chris Woakes when both were well set.
Asitha did not quite get top-level support from the other two seamers, Vishwa Fernando and Milan Rathnayake, and other than the two balls that pitched, spun sharply and beat Brook and Woakes in defence, there was no turn at all for Jayasuriya, so Sri Lanka did well to keep England in check. Only Brook and Jamie Smith passed 50, and there was a single-figure score for Ollie Pope, bowled neck and crop in his first innings as England captain.
England had opted to play the extra bowler rather than stiffen the batting in Ben Stokes’s absence — the right call, in my view — but it means the extent of their lead on the third day, therefore, will depend on Smith, who ended a shortened day unbeaten on 72, and how much support he will be given by the bowlers, like Gus Atkinson and Matthew Potts, in whose lower-order batting the selectors have shown some faith.
Smith hit the shot of the day, when he bludgeoned Jayasuriya for a mighty straight six, and played the innings of the day, in a well-constructed 97 balls, that combined intent, watchfulness and intent again towards the close. He has made a fine impression in his early Tests, one of the reasons the selectors were happy to push him a place up the order to No6 in the absence of Stokes — along with Woakes’s excellent home record with bat and ball.
Sri Lanka always felt in the game after three wickets fell in the first 15 overs. The short, stocky and nippy Asitha looked dangerous at the start of the innings, finding swing and seam. He had a leg-before decision overturned by Dan Lawrence, on ten at the time, before benefiting from the review system shortly afterwards, when overturning a not-out call against Ben Duckett, who, beaten by late inswing, overbalanced to the off side. Pope was bowled on the inside by a good ball.
Joe Root’s presence was reassuring after the fall of two early wickets, as no England batsman has made more runs on this ground than him. He has always enjoyed the true bounce here —he made his highest Test score, 254 against Pakistan here — as well as the pace the pitch offers, because he glides and manipulates the ball so well square of the wicket. He immediately looked at ease, despite losing Lawrence, who edged Vishwa to the ’keeper.
Lawrence had shaped well enough in his first innings as an opener in Test cricket. Sri Lanka had set the field back from the outset, protecting the boundaries on either side of the wicket, allowing some easy singles. Lawrence’s most forceful shots came when Asitha dropped short, and he pulled him twice to the boundary in the 13th over. A change of ends for the left-armer, Vishwa, brought a different challenge, as the strong cross-breeze helped the bowler push the ball across the right-handers, Lawrence’s dismissal the result.
After that, Sri Lanka found a small measure of reverse-swing when the ball was about 20 overs old, the rough, abrasive square at Old Trafford having more of an effect than the lush outfield, still a little damp from the overnight rain. The consequence of that was a pleasing passage of play, with Sri Lanka’s quicker bowlers searching for the kind of full length that reverse-swing demands, and Root and Brook responding with some high-quality driving.
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In the 18th over Root and Brook took three sumptuous straight drives off Rathnayake, and they eventually forced Dhananjaya de Silva to introduce the left-arm spinner, Jayasuriya, to break things up, but there was no turn to be had. Root and Brook posted a fifty partnership in 58 balls before Root went looking for one drive too many off Asitha and edged behind, Dinesh Chandimal taking a good low catch.
Brook showed Root how to do it when the tall, rangy Rathnayake returned, stroking a gorgeous straight drive for four. He really does make batting look very easy at times. Smith settled without alarm. Jayasuriya was given the Statham End for his second spell and, finding some drift in off the breeze, bowled Sri Lanka’s first maiden of the innings. England’s run rate was always healthy, but Sri Lanka were well in the hunt, eyeing the lengthy tail.
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Brook had looked totally untroubled when Jayasuriya spun one sharply in the 40th over, to rock back the off stump. It was a wonderful ball, one that turned Brook around in defence, but quite why this ball, alone until that point, spun like that was a mystery. It certainly puzzled Brook, judging by his look of astonishment as he lingered before trudging off. The pulse of the game dropped after that, as Sri Lanka pushed the field back and their seamers tired, and Woakes and Smith took no risks with the situation a precarious one.
The pair, looking assured, added 52 before Woakes was beaten by Jayasuriya, in similar fashion to Brook. If the ball that bowled Woakes did not spin to quite the same extent, the element of surprise was the same. Smith upped the ante again before the rain came and he will return on the third morning, eyeing a first Test century that had eluded him at Edgbaston against West Indies, and looking to give England a significant lead.