Sri Lanka got off to a poor start on the morning of day three that handed the momentum to England; Jamie Smith (111) picked up his maiden Test century; Watch day four from Old Trafford, live on Sky Sports Cricket and Main Event from 10.15am, Saturday (first ball, 11am)
Friday 23 August 2024 20:04, UK
In the entire 147-year history of Test cricket, there have perhaps been few instances where a team has made a more shambolic start to a day's play than Sri Lanka did on the third morning of the first Test against England at Old Trafford.
First, skipper Dhananjaya de Silva tried to bowl Asitha Fernando for the first over of the morning, only to be stopped by the umpires as the seamer had bowled the final over of the previous day. Then came nearly two minutes of delay while fielders put pads on as De Silva decided to bowl spinner Prabath Jayasuriya instead.
If the morning session started badly for the tourists, it went downhill from there and although they were eventually able to bowl England out for 358 and even keep a glimmer of hope alive by establishing an 82-run lead by the end of the day, it perhaps summed up the hit-and-miss nature of Sri Lanka's performance in this match.
"I cannot understand for the life of me how, at the start of a day's play, you do not know exactly what you are doing," former England batter Mark Butcher told Sky Sports.
"Day three - a huge day, you are still very much in the Test match, you've hung in for two days and showed a lot of character.
"How does every single man on that field not know exactly what is going to be happening first ball, who is bowling, what fields we are going to have, what our plans are in terms of keeping [Jamie] Smith away from the bowling or putting him under pressure when he starts again?
"I don't understand how a professional Test cricket team cannot be ready to do that on a day such as today. It's unfathomable they wouldn't have had an idea as a collective, not just the captain."
As if England, inspired by Smith's first Test century before he was eventually out for 111, establishing a 122-run lead was not bad enough for Sri Lanka, they then found themselves 10-2 at lunch after Nishan Madushka and Kusal Mendis both departed without troubling the scorer.
Dimuth Karunaratne (27) and skipper De Silva (16), who was unable to build on his first-innings top score of 74, then fell in the afternoon to leave their side wobbling on 95-4, with Dinesh Chandimal being forced off the field injured after being hit on the thumb by Mark Wood.
"The tone was pretty bad at the start of it," former Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara told Sky Sports. "Did all of the players know what the plan was?
"Then you saw the fielding, the energy was not really there and that was bad.
"It's about playing for their moment [with the bat], building the partnership...and just keep doing that for as long as they can.
"You will get good balls and might be delaying the inevitable but delay it for as long as possible by scoring runs and reversing pressure."
Whether Angelo Mathews and Kamindu Mendis heard the words of one of their country's greats will perhaps never be known, but they certainly batted like they had taken Sangakkara's analysis on board to spark something of a revival from Sri Lanka in the afternoon and evening.
Mathews, who lasted just five balls in his side's first innings, put together a composed 65 to steer his side away from danger and put on a superb 78 partnership with Kamindu before being caught by the diving Matthew Potts off Chris Woakes after the ball started swinging following a change.
Kamindu stood firm to end the day unbeaten on 56, surviving after being dropped on 38 and a successful DRS review on 48, and will resume on day four with Chandimal back at the crease after his spell off the field.
England will undoubtedly feel they are still on top and well-placed to press on for victory, yet there have been glimmers for Sri Lanka - even if day three did not begin exactly how they would have wanted.
"It has been a funny old day," Atherton told Sky Sports. "Sri Lanka have found some resistance, Angelo Mathews has played excellently, Kamindu Mendis looked in rare touch.
"They just gave England two hours' head start in the morning.
"They have been competitive throughout this game, and they have been competitive for long periods."
Watch the third day of England's first Test against Sri Lanka, from Emirates Old Trafford in Manchester, live on Sky Sports Cricket and Sky Sports Main Event from 10.15am on Wednesday (11am first ball)
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