Root summons old-fashioned values to guide England home

Four down, two to go: England’s hunt for a clean sweep of wins in the Test summer remains alive, but this was a close-run thing. Sri Lanka (who were reeling at six for three half an hour into the match) gave them a terrific fight and it was telling that after the loss of three early wickets England went old-school in approach.
“Bazball” and all its works was never so absent as in this game. None of the famous recent run-chases under Ben Stokes was achieved like this, England creeping rather than charging to their target.
Joe Root was the anchor, playing immaculately but not hitting a boundary until his 95th ball, and his stand of 49 in 19.3 overs with Harry Brook — finally undone by Prabath Jayasuriya, the left-arm spinner, drawing him into chipping a return catch from round the wicket — was England’s slowest partnership of more than 40 during the Stokes era.
Only after the final drinks break did Jamie Smith, in his second major contribution of the game, floor the accelerator. Having scored six from 26, he plundered 33 off his next 21 balls before he was bowled advancing down the pitch with 22 needed.
Root appeared to guess he might be needed, getting to the ground at 8.30am for an extra net with a new bat, and he was still there at the end on 62 from 128 balls. Having tried and failed to sign off with a reverse scoop he hit down the ground for the winning runs at 7.17pm in company with Chris Woakes.
England have only twice won more than five matches in a home season: seven out of seven in 2004, and six out of seven in 2022. If they are to rival those heights, they may have to do it the hard way.
Already two injured players down going into the series, including Stokes, they are facing a third change after it was confirmed that Mark Wood had picked up a right thigh injury and would not take the field.
With the Lord’s Test starting on Thursday, the likelihood is that Wood’s place will go to Olly Stone, who was in the squad for this game but is currently involved in a championship match for Nottinghamshire, and who could provide similar high pace. Sam Curran might be added as cover. Wood is almost certainly out of the series.
That said, to win this game without Stokes will give everyone a huge boost. After finally dismissing Sri Lanka for 326 some 35 minutes after lunch, England set off in pursuit of 205. It did not go well. Ben Duckett, having already narrowly escaped being caught down the leg side, was caught behind off the skilful Asitha Fernando to a ball that threatened to shape in but nipped away off the pitch.
Ollie Pope started cautiously before freakishly toe-ending an attempted reverse sweep to slip to further inflate statistics that suggest he is one of the worst starters among top-order England players of modern times (43 per cent of his innings end inside 25 balls). Twelve runs in two innings is hardly the captaincy debut he was hoping for.
Dan Lawrence shaped nicely before he was leg- before to a nip-backer from Milan Rathnayake for 35 to bring Root and Brook, the two Yorkshiremen, together.
At that point, the unthinkable seemed possible: England might lose despite taking a first-innings lead of 122, something that has happened only once on home soil, when Richie Benaud’s Australians overturned a deficit of 177 on this ground in 1961. To add to the tension, England had gone into the game a batsman light.
Earlier, England were asked tough questions in the field. This is a new-ball ground, as was shown by the last four Sri Lanka wickets being mopped up for 19 inside five overs with the second new ball (as well as England losing early wickets in their chase). Prior to that, the seamers had laboured fruitlessly for two hours trying to break a partnership of 117 between Dinesh Chandimal and Kamindu Mendis, who capitalised on being put down on 39 the previous evening to strike a third century in his fourth Test.
Both these players, left-hander and right-hander, batted beautifully, Chandimal with great character considering he was nursing a damaged right thumb, but even so the extent of England’s old-ball impotence was worrying.
They created no real chances, no catches went to hand and no lbw shouts rent the air. The Sri Lankan pair showed good intent, attacking hard when the opportunity presented itself, and even when England bowled wicket-to-wicket and set defensive fields there was no stopping them. At one point, Gus Atkinson conceded 24 in two overs.
It did not help that the replacement ball that swung so handily for England on Friday night, delivering them two wickets much to the fury of Sri Lanka who felt it was newer than it should have been, did much less now.
The biggest concern was the lack of mongrel. Through a combination of injuries, retirements and selection, this is a team with a quiet captain, a quiet keeper and quiet fast bowlers, and it may have needed inspirational words at the lunch break – which arrived two overs into the second new ball with Sri Lanka 291 for six, 169 ahead – to galvanise the troops.
Atkinson was skewered for three boundaries in his first over after the re-start but at Pope’s instigation he went round the wicket and immediately had Mendis caught low at slip by Root off a scrambled-seam delivery of extra bounce. It was a fine piece of bowling to end a fine innings of 113 from Mendis, who walked off averaging 92.16 in Tests and 64.80 in first-class cricket.
England were into the tail and quickly made it count. Matthew Potts lured Jayasuriya into a loose drive, Brook holding a juggling catch at second slip, and Woakes then had Vishwa Fernando leg-before. This left Chandimal no choice but to hit out and after getting away one boundary he was held at deep extra by sub fielder Harry Singh to put Potts level with Woakes on three wickets.
Sri Lanka may have been defeated but on hard, dry pitches of this sort they will be confident of pushing England hard again, especially if Wood is missing.