Jamie Smith continued his fine start to life in Test cricket with a maiden international hundred, before a pair of late wickets dented Sri Lanka’s resistance on the third evening at Old Trafford.
With the Manchester wind still howling following Storm Lilian’s visit overnight, Smith breezed to three figures for the first time in just his fourth Test, his 111 steering England to a first-innings lead of 122.
Half-centuries from Kamindu Mendis and Angelo Mathews rescued Sri Lanka from a grim position at one for two at the top of their second dig, but late strikes by Chris Woakes and Joe Root with a changed ball left the tourists six down at stumps, and only 82 ahead.
Kamindu remains unmoved on 56, rejoined by Dinesh Chandimal in what is now the key partnership, with only the tail to come. Chandimal had initially retired hurt having been hit on the thumb by Mark Wood, who himself limped off the field mid-over late in what became an eventful conclusion to the day.
Midway through the evening session, the contest was on the drift, but a ball change that ought to come with a trigger warning for Australian audiences brought it back to life. Both Mathews, who made 65, and Kamindu were dropped off the bowling of the unlucky Matthew Potts, while Woakes twice had leg-before shouts given on the field but overturned on review.
The contrast was stark with a sleepy morning in which Sri Lanka’s lack of urgency threatened to condemn them to a swift defeat. The tourists had grafted hard for the best part of five sessions to make amends for the first day’s top-order collapse, but what ground they had reclaimed was largely given back in the first two hours of the third.
With the game in the balance, England just 23 runs ahead and already six down, Sri Lanka were puzzlingly casual, loose with the ball and flat in the field.
Asitha Fernando was the pick of the seamers on day two, but his hesitant first delivery was straight driven for four by Smith, who was asked too few questions and permitted too much strike as he accumulated calmly towards three figures from his overnight 72.
That the 24-year-old had been out in the nineties in his last Test innings, against West Indies at Lord’s, had felt at the time more a result of circumstance than jitters or nerves. His celebration here was every bit as composed as his batting, one of a man expecting this first hundred to be followed quickly by a good few more.
Surrey teammate Atkinson had provided steady company, but fell in the following over to give Milan Rathnayake his first Test scalp. Smith followed soon after, brilliantly caught off a top edge by Chandimal as he went slashing at Prabath Jayasuriya’s spin.
A better grab, though, was coming, a one-handed corker from a pint wielder in Old Trafford’s party stand, after Wood had cleared the fence hooking in an entertaining late dart. He made 22 from just 13 balls, but all four England seamers played decent parts, welcome contributions at the back end of a lineup weakened by the absence of Ben Stokes.
Potts was last out to leave Sri Lanka an awkward few overs to navigate before lunch. They did not mange three balls, Nishan Madushka shouldering arms to Woakes’s scrambled-seam, which nipped back to make the batter a fool, before Atkinson claimed Kusal Mendis as his 25th Test wicket in just his fourth cap.
Over grub, they recovered some resolve, and when Pope took his review record as captain to 0-3 in the midst of a lull you sensed a hint of English impatience for the first time.
The introduction of Wood, though, sped things up, the quick removing Dimuth Karunaratne with his very first ball, and then sending Chandimal for an x-ray with a mean bouncer that climbed and hit the keeper hard.
Dhananjaya de Silva had built some respectability into Sri Lanka’s first innings from a position of similar peril but could not follow up, trapped by a relieved Potts, who had gone wicketless in the first innings of his first Test in a year. He should have had two more, Mathews put down horribly by Root at slip, before Atkinson shelled a more awkward low chance off Kamindu.
Root, bizarrely, would make some amends before the day was done, completing the stricken Wood’s over and tempting Milan Rathnayake into an ugly shot.
