Sri Lanka v England 2021.

[westoelad]

Without having seen it, I'll question why he was even running for the second ball of the final over of the day. Isn't he supposed to be farming the strike? He left Wood to face 5 balls a couple of overs earlier and he promptly got out. Magnificent innings, but the end to what was a reasonable day for England and a very good day for honest Joe just feels a bit unnecessary.

Exactly-he wasn't running. He went well forward and middled the ball defensively but shortleg made a brilliant pickup and threw down the wicket. Just extremely unfortunate.

[Durhamfootman]

I have seen it now and for whatever reason he took a couple of strides down the pitch after playing a defensive shot. Not sure why.... tiredness perhaps. Sharp work in the field, but he was a long way out of his crease with 4 balls left in the day. I did have another look to see if he'd come out of his crease to negate the spin, but he played it in his crease and moved forward a couple of steps after playing it. It's just a great shame, because from what I've read, it seems to have been a near chanceless innings

If nothing else, he'll be going to India in good touch and with a potential top 3 of Burns, Sibley and Crawley, England will need him to be magnificent

[Durhamfootman]

I know that I'm being unduly harsh after such a fine knock, but double hundreds in back to back tests would have looked very impressive on his CV

[sussexpob]

Caught up with the highlights. Stunning bit of fielding to get Root out that

[westoelad]

Yeh, should have been stumped earlier playing a similar stroke which he missed but so did the rentagob wicketkeeper.Had good reason to be tired, he's been in The field for 3 whole days apart from first 7 overs of our innings.
In contrast Woody's innings bordered on the idiotic.

[alfie]

Yeh, should have been stumped earlier playing a similar stroke which he missed but so did the rentagob wicketkeeper.Had good reason to be tired, he's been in The field for 3 whole days apart from first 7 overs of our innings.
In contrast Woody's innings bordered on the idiotic.

Strange choice , I thought , to send Wood in when they did. I'd have thought the aim at that point was just to get through to the close , and leave any potential big hitting by Wood for the morning ? Wood isn't noted as a stonewall type so Leach - or even Anderson - would probably have been more likely to just block out the last few overs.

Done now anyway. Great pity Root got out at the death , another thirty runs might be vital and hard to see the last pair getting them now. But at least they've got fairly close so the game is still very much live going into the last two days. A lot up to England's spin twins so I hope they've learned from watching Embuldeniya...

Root was tremendous. Hardly an error until near the end when tiredness started to get to him. Two epic performances in successive games in the heat ...magnificent

[bigfluffylemon]

Sri Lanka 66/6



England spinners finally getting in the wickets, collapse is on and there may be a chance. Never going to be easy chasing here though.

Game on

[alfie]

Has been a lively morning ...

Sri Lanka panicking a bit : England spinners have bowled well ; but a few injudicious shots have not done the home team any favours. Effectively 104/6 so game is well and truly on.

Some fine catching there , notably from Crawley and Anderson

Really Sri Lanka's last real batsmen at the crease after lunch : wonder how they will approach this ? Another fifty or so would give England a nervy chase given the amount of turn on offer today... Another fascinating Test.

[Gingerfinch]

Going to be an interesting chase.

[sussexpob]

163 in front, one left. Id doesnt feel enough for SL, they should really have blown the game this morning

[Durhamfootman]

well, it's all happening. A batting collapse followed by an irritating 9th wicket stand. Embuldeniya is having one of those matches. I have no doubt he'll open the bowling too.

164 to win. Sounds promising, but I reckon this might be a challenge unless Root does his stuff or Buttler puts his T20 batting hat on

[Durhamfootman]

2 in 2 for honest Joe to finish the SL innings off

[Durhamfootman]

According to crapinfo that's the first time a test team has taken all 10 wickets of the first innings with seam and all 10 of the second with spin.

[bigfluffylemon]

It's Root v Embuldeniya out there.

164 to win. Going to be hairy, no doubt

[Durhamfootman]

Crawley goes

of course he does. seemingly today's 17 runs is England's highest opening stand thus far

I won't need to say who got the wicket... everyone will know