Anderson ten leads England’s surge to innings victory

By our correspondents

May 22, 2016

HEADINGLEY: James Anderson sealed the third ten-wicket haul of his Test career, as England’s bowlers upped the intensity after a long rain delay on the third afternoon at Headingley on Saturday, and powered their way to an innings-and-88 run victory with a final three-wicket flurry after tea.

Anderson, fittingly, delivered the coup de grace, bowling Nuwan Pradeep for a duck to seal match figures of 10 for 45, the majority coming hand-in-glove with Jonny Bairstow, who finished the match with nine catches behind the stumps.

Despite picking off both openers during the morning session, England’s standards had visibly slipped from the heights of the second afternoon, with two dropped catches allied to some wayward lines and lengths. Unusually, Trevor Bayliss led the team-talk on the boundary’s edge as they emerged after lunch, and his words appeared to be more urgent than a simple geeing-up.

Whatever it was he said, it had the desired effect, for as soon as the rain relented, Sri Lanka’s innings began to gurgle down the drain. Moeen Ali, barely involved in the contest since his duck on the second morning, was thrown the ball for his first over of the series — ostensibly to allow Anderson and Stuart Broad to switch ends, but responded with the bonus extraction of Dinesh Chandimal for 8 — a horrible cramped cut that he chopped onto his own stumps after four balls of the resumption.

It was an irresponsible dismissal from one of Sri Lanka’s senior men (not to mention the second time in as many days that he had been removed from the fray in the first over after lunch) and it left too much riding on the shoulders of the 21-year-old Kusal Mendis - who had ridden his luck in the morning to make a gutsy 47 not out before the break - and Angelo Mathews, whose brilliant series-seizing 160 in his last appearance at Headingley two years ago couldn’t have felt much further from the agenda.

Sure enough, Mathews had no heroics up his sleeve this time out. With 5 from 13 balls to his name, including an edged four through gully, he was suckered by Broad’s trademark angle, into the off stump from wide on the crease, and grazed an edge through to Bairstow that he’ll know he could have left well alone.

Mendis, by now, had brought up his maiden Test fifty with his eighth and final boundary, a spanking full-faced drill through midwicket as Anderson over-pitched on middle stump. It was an innings of skill and application from a player held in high esteem by Kumar Sangakkara, among other fine judges of the game, even if he did require two big let-offs to get that far - including a low edge to James Vince at third slip off what had been the final morning of the morning session.

In between whiles, however, Mendis had showcased the talent that could yet augur well for a brittle Sri Lanka line-up in desperate need of a new generation of heroes.

After seeing off the probing Anderson, who was arguably half a yard short of the perfect length that he found in his first-innings masterclass, Mendis took his pound of flesh from the toiling Finn, who seemed to struggle to find his rhythm on a pitch that, with its pronounced slope, can prove tricky for quick bowlers. Two fours in the space of four balls, both stabbed back whence they came as Finn overpitched, kick-started his innings and lifted the confidence of a beleaguered dressing room.

But on 53, Mendis’ luck finally ran out, as Anderson extracted some extra lift outside off stump, and the batsman chopped onto his own stumps as he failed to ride the bounce.

Dasun Shanaka avoided his king pair, and even got off the mark in Test cricket with a stab through point in Anderson’s next over. But with Jimmy’s outswinger now purring out of his hand, he was soon trapped on the back foot with nowhere for the ball to go but straight into Bairstow’s gloves for the ninth time in the innings.

Rangana Herath showed no great desire to hang around. His solitary scoring shot was a squirt for four through the cordon, and he soon became Finn’s first victim of the match — caught at short cover by Broad, one delivery after being clanged a painful blow on the elbow.

In the morning session, there had been little that Sri Lanka’s openers could have done about the two balls that extracted them. On both occasions, Anderson produced his unplayable best, a hooping, snorting outswinger to the left-handed Dimuth Karunaratne, that exploded off the pitch to kiss the splice through to Bairstow, and then, eight overs later, a mirror image delivery to the right-handed Kaushal Silva.

Sri Lanka’s prospects might have been lifted a touch by the news that Ben Stokes was receiving treatment for the knee injury he suffered in the field on the second day and was not going to bowl for the rest of the match.

By tea, Lahiru Thirimanne continued to loiter on 15 not out, with Dushmantha Chameera yet to score, but the end was very much nigh. Chameera fell for a golden duck on the resumption, caught at short leg off Finn, who then added Thirimanne two balls later, via a sharp edge to second slip. Five balls later, Anderson had sealed the deal, as the teams head to Chester-le-Street for next Friday’s second Test.

Score Board

Sri Lanka won toss

England 1st innings 298 all-out (J Bairstow 140, A Hales 86; Shanaka 3-46)

Sri Lanka 1st innings 91 all-out (A Mathews 34; J Anderson 6-16)

Sri Lanka 2nd innings (follow on)

F D M Karunaratne c Bairstow b Anderson 7

J K Silva c Bairstow b Anderson 14

B K G Mendis b Anderson 53

†L D Chandimal b Ali 8

*A D Mathews c Bairstow b Broad 5

H D R L Thirimanne c Root b Finn 16

M D Shanaka c Bairstow b Anderson 4