Keaton Jennings magic leaves England on verge of Sri Lanka Test win as storm stops play

A brilliant innings of 88 by former Sri Lankan captain Angelo Mathews nudged his side into a position of power.


But Mathews was lbw to Moeen Ali to the third ball after tea on day four and then Jack Leach removed Dilruwan Perera for just two.

A storm then engulfed the ground with Sri Lanka 226-7 in their second innings – still 75 runs short of their victory target of 301.

Either side could win from here but logic insists England are strong favourites.

There was sublime batting from Mathews and left-handed opener Dimuth Karunaratne and spin bowling of mixed quality by England.

But, perhaps most of all, there were two extraordinary pieces of fielding by Keaton Jennings at short leg. One was a catch, the other an assist that gifted a catch to wicketkeeper Ben Foakes.

Jennings first held an amazing, reaction catch to remove Dhananjaya de Silva off Leach.

Then, when Karunaratne played a hard sweep against Adil Rashid, Jennings somehow parried the ball into the air with his left hand – and Foakes completed the catch.

Karanaratne must be cursing his luck. In the first innings, he was run out by Ben Stokes’ dazzling pick-up and direct hit.

After England added a further 22 runs in the morning, Sri Lanka were set 301 to win.

Their chase looked doomed within the first eight overs during which Leach took three wickets with his left-arm spin.

Leach, incidentally, is the first England player to open the batting and bowling in the same Test since Graham Gooch against Pakistan in Faisalabad in 1987.

Kaushal Silva was stumped from the sixth ball he faced, Dhananjaya was miraculously snaffled by Jennings and Kusal Mendis leg before.

Leach has dismissed the dangerous Mendis four times out of four in the series.


From 26-3, Kuranaratne and Mathews took the total to 103 when the Jennings/Foakes double act combined.

In its way, it was a better catch than any of the relays we see so often on the boundary.

Mathews and Roshen Silva put on a further 73 runs for the fifth wicket.

England were starting to fret. Once, Joe Root threw wildly at the stumps and four overthrows resulted.

Eventually, Roshen was caught at slip by Root off a faint inside edge.

But it took a review to detect that bat was involved.

All the time, Mathews was playing superbly. He was calm and punished anything short or over-pitched from the England slow men, of which there was more than Root would have wanted.

Mathews swept rarely, certainly much less frequently than the England batsman.

Remember, Mathews was dropped from the one-day series because he was overweight and unfit.

It was a kick up the backside to Sri Lanka’s most experienced player and he has responded with three half-centuries in two Tests.

The big moment came straight after tea when Mathews was leg before to Moeen and Perera followed three overs later.

The rain then arrived and England will have to wait another day to nail home their advantage  and take a 2-0 series lead with one Test to play.

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