England’s Broad strikes as Sri Lanka slump in 1st Test

Leeds (United Kingdom) (AFP) – Stuart Broad sparked a Sri Lanka top-order collapse as England took charge of the first Test at Headingley on Friday.

Sri Lanka were 43 for three at tea on the second day, 255 runs adrift of England’s first innings 298 which featured Jonathan Bairstow’s 140 on his Yorkshire home ground.

Dinesh Chandimal and Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews were both 15 not out in testing, overcast conditions.

Broad, the world’s number one-ranked Test bowler, needed just 12 balls to take his first wicket on Friday.

Coming from round the wicket, Broad had Dimuth Karunaratne out for a duck as the left-handed opener edged an excellent delivery that nipped away through to wicket-keeper Bairstow.

Kaushal Silva, Sri Lanka’s other opener, was caught behind off a sharply rising ball from James Anderson for 11.

Kusal Mendis, like Karunaratne, fell for a duck when he edged Broad and gave Bairstow his third routine catch of the innings.

Sri Lanka were now 12 for three, with Broad having taken two wickets for no runs in three balls.

Those early Sri Lankan wickets also highlighted the value of Bairstow’s runs — and how costly it had been for Sri Lanka to drop him on 70, half of his eventual score.

Mathews — whose Test-best 160 laid the platform for Sri Lanka’s win at Headingley two years ago that clinched their first series win in England — defiantly cut Broad through point for four.

But he was almost undone by the last ball before tea, with occasional medium-pacer James Vince producing a spiteful delivery that leapt off a good length.

– Hales misses out –

England resumed on 171 for five, having collapsed to 83 for five on Thursday.

Alex Hales was 71 not out, with Bairstow unbeaten on 54 after Sri Lanka medium-pacer Dasun Shanaka had taken three top-order wickets on Test debut.

Bairstow was soon into his stride, with the best of his shots Friday an on-driven four off Shanaka.

It was not long before he had outscored Hales, who was 43 not out when Bairstow came in.

Bairstow, however should have been out when Nuwan Pradeep dropped a caught and bowled chance off a checked drive.

Hales and Bairstow took their sixth-wicket stand to 141.

But there was no maiden Test century for Nottinghamshire opener Hales.

Dropped on 82, he was out for 86 when, losing patience after nearly five-and-a-half hours’ concentration, Hales holed out off left-arm spinner Rangana Herath.

Moeen Ali and Broad both came and went, with Bairstow in danger of running out of partners before he got to three figures.

But an overthrown three saw Bairstow to his second Test century and first in England following the Yorkshireman’s 150 not out against South Africa at Cape Town in January.

England were 243 for eight at lunch off 80 overs and Sri Lanka took the new ball straight after lunch.

But Bairstow kept the runs coming in a ninth-wicket stand of 56 with Steven Finn.

Bairstow’s 183-ball innings, including 13 fours and a six, ended when he holed out off Chameera to Pradeep at mid-on.