Chester-le-Street (United Kingdom) (AFP) – Captain Alastair Cook and opening partner Alex Hales missed out on contrasting landmarks but England made a strong start to the second Test against Sri Lanka at the Riverside on Friday.
Cook failed to score the 20 runs he needed to become the first England batsman to reach 10,000 in Tests.
And for the second time in as many innings, Hales fell in the 80s when in sight of a maiden Test century.
At tea, England were 200 for three, with Joe Root 69 not out and James Vince 22 not out.
Left-handed batsman Cook started his innings patiently after winning the toss in overcast conditions.
However, his lone boundary, a whip pull up on one leg off Suranga Lakmal, was a kind of mirror image of the shot made famous by retired West Indies right-handed opener Gordon Greenidge.
But Lakmal, in for the injured Dushmantha Chameera, dismissed Cook when he had the 31-year-old Essex batsman, playing well away from his body and pushing outside off stump, well caught low to his left by a diving Dimuth Karunaratne at second slip.
Cook’s exit for 15, five runs shy of the 10,000 mark, left England 39 for one.
New batsman Nick Compton accepted in the build-up to this match he was playing for his Test place after his duck in England’s innings and 88-run win in the first of this three-match series at Headingley last week.
Compton, however, was out for nine when he top-edged a hook off Nuwan Pradeep and Lakmal, when it seemed the ball had cleared him, held a brilliant two-handed catch at long leg that left him facing the boundary and just inches from the rope.
Hales, 45 not out at lunch, completed a 131-ball fifty with eight fours.
Having made 86 at Headingley, he went into the 80s with a straight six off Milinda Siriwardana’s fourth delivery of the day.
But next ball,the left-arm spinner, replacing dropped medium-pacer Dasun Shanaka, had his revenge when Hales’s fiercely-edged cut was brilliantly caught one-handed by Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews at slip.
Hales was out for 83 off 145 balls, having added 96 with Root.
Yorkshire star Root threaded a superb cover drive through the in-field for four off Rangana Herath on his way to a 70-ball fifty, although the left-arm spinner almost had him stumped later on.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.