By Srian Obeyesekere

Sri Lanka rode the gloom back into the game of decimating England from a first day high of 221 for 3 to bowling out the hosts for 325 in a pace-spin grand job of claiming 6 of the 7 wickets for 35 in 56 balls to another back to the wall unfinished 118-run seventh-wicket fightback from a dire 93 for 5 through skipper Dhananjaya de Silva 64 and Kamindu Mendis 54 of an eventful end of the third test second day 211 for 5 by another early bad light stoppage at the Kensington Oval yesterday.

Lankan skipper Dhananjaya de Silva rose to a perfect lead from the front captain’s job all-round showing accounting for 2 wickets that of Chris Woakes and Gus Atkinson in digging out England to coming back in a typical role of riding the chips of the battered and bruised to putting his side very much in contention after seamer Vishwa Fernando had starred with the ball with the key wickets of Jamie Smith for 16 flicking to Kusal Mendis at midwicket and prize man Pope hooking to deep square leg Karunaratne.. Left-arm seamer Milan Rathnayake starred in a 3 for 56 take sparking the England collapse accounting for overnight Harry Brook who added just 10 for his 18 to a sharp catch by Kamindu Mendis at short cover. That back bending paid in checking England captain Ollie Pope’s translation of his overnight 103 by a further half century for 154 by destroying the rest of the batting. 

Sri Lanka’s innings touched disaster run out of Dimuth Karunaratne for 18 with the score 34 by a direct hit by Stone due to a bad call by Pathum Nissanka. However, Nissanka did stand strong in that mess stroking 64 off 51 balls hitting 9 boundaries. as England claimed a second wicket of Kusal Mendis for 14 to Woakes snapped up by Harry Brook at second slip. Angelo Mathews fell for 3 to Stone o his fourth delivery spooning to Pope at gully.  and after Hull had removed Nissanka was fourth out to debutant Josh Hull caught by Woakes and Sri Lanka was 4 gone for 91 in 15.3 overs. Dinesh Chandimal followed two runs later leg before wicket to Stone for a duck. 

So began Sri Lanka’s recovery from 93 for 5 courtesy Dhananjaya de Silva joined by the batsman for situations Kamindu Mendis who once again buckled down to taking his side out of the woods. The Dhananjaya-Mendis bonding saw the latter hit through the imposing England attack dispatching Stone to the boundary by three superb drives in a session that the pair added 69 in 17 overs that was confined to spin due to bad light.

Dhananjaya de Silva had struck 10 boundaries in his 106-ball 64 and Mendis 6 boundaries in his 54 off 70 as the duo in raising Sri Lanka’s hopes to fronting a further deficit of 114 runs. 

Sri Lanka 211 for 5 (Dhananjaya 64*, Nissanka 64, Kamindu 54*) trail England 325 (Pope 154, Duckett 86, Rathnayake 3-56, Dhananjaya 2-18) by 114 runs