Sri Lanka vs England, 1st test: 4 things learnt

England beat Sri Lanka by 211 runs in the first test of the 3 match series at Galle. England were all out for 342 in the first innings after wicket-keeper Ben Foakes scored his maiden Test century in his debut Test. Foakes scored 107 priceless runs for England as they recovered after a top-order collapse. Dilruwan Perera took 5 wickets for Sri Lanka.

In reply, Sri Lanka were dismissed for 203 as the English spinners ran riot. The spinners took 8 wickets for England. Moeen Ali was the most successful of them with 4 wickets. Adil Rashid and Jack Leach took 2 wickets apiece and pacers Jimmy Anderson and Sam Curran chipped in with a wicket each. Angelo Mathews top-scored for Sri Lanka with 52 valuable runs.

England declared their second innings at 322/6 and set Sri Lanka a target of 462 runs. Opener Keaton Jennings scored 146 not out in England’s second innings and Rangana Herath, playing in his last Test, was the most successful Sri Lankan bowler with 2 wickets.

Sri Lanka were dismissed for 250 in their second innings and lost the match by a huge margin of 211 runs. For England, Moeen Ali and Jack Leach took 4 and 3 wickets respectively in the fourth innings of the match.

Let us take a look at the top four talking points from the match:

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#1. English spinners generated prodigious turn and bounce:

Moeen Ali

The English spinners generated prodigious turn on a surface that assisted spinners from day 1. Ali, Rashid and Leach tested the Lankan batsmen with sharp turn and bounce.

Rashid bowled the conventional leg-break very well and was rewarded with 4 wickets in the match. Debutant Leach mainly bowled with a horizontal seam and got 5 wickets. He generated a nice loop and turn, which troubled the Sri Lankan batsmen to an extent.

Moeen Ali was the pick of the bowlers as he generated sharp bounce off the wicket. He bowled some brilliant top-spinners which bamboozled the Sri Lankan batsmen. He also used the width of the crease very well and bowled from a wide angle to generate a loop which caught the Lankan batsmen off-guard.

Ali was especially successful against the left-handed batsmen as he spun the ball away from them. He also gave the ball considerable flight and reaped the rewards for it by taking 8 wickets in the match.

Rashid, meanwhile, took the vital wicket of Dinesh Chandimal, the Lankan skipper in the first innings. He flighted and moved the ball away from an advancing Chandimal, who missed it and was stumped by Foakes. Sri Lanka had prepared a turning pitch for the visitors, but were done in by the English spinners.

#2. English seamers swung the ball and got early breakthroughs:

Jimmy Anderson

Jimmy Anderson and Sam Curran, the English new-ball bowlers, swung the ball very well and got the rewards by taking a wicket each in Sri Lanka's first innings.

Anderson got the wicket of Karunanratne with an away-swinger that took the edge of latter’s bat and went to the wicketkeeper. Curran then made a delivery swing back into the right-handed Kaushal Silva and trapped him in front of the wicket. England gained the momentum initially as both the Lankan openers were dismissed cheaply.

Ben Stokes bowled a few overs with the older ball but did not look threatening enough in the first innings. Stokes typically hits the deck hard and the surface was not very suitable for such kind of bowling on the second day.

Anderson and Curran, on the other hand, are swing bowlers predominantly and therefore, would have a chance of being more successful in Sri Lanka, especially with the new ball. Anderson bowled some absolute peach with the old ball in the second innings and was unlucky to go wicketless.

However, Stokes looked to be more effective in the second innings of Sri Lanka as his hit-the-deck seam bowling was more suitable on a deteriorating pitch. England do look like a complete bowling unit now and Sri Lankan batsmen would not find it easy to deal with them in this series.

#3. Sri Lankan batsmen lacked application:

Angelo Mathews

None of the Lankan batsmen showed the requisite temperament and technique except Angelo Mathews. However, Mathews too was guilty of playing forward to a short-pitched ball from Moeen Ali in the first innings and got caught in the forward short-leg.

In the second innings, he was unlucky to be dismissed off a delivery that jumped suddenly off the pitch. However, he scored half-centuries in both the innings and is the only Lankan batsman who can keep his head high.

Other batsmen like Chandimal and Dickwella suffered from poor shot-selection in the first innings. Chandimal scored 33 and Dickwella made 28 and both looked like playing big knocks before throwing their wickets away.

Kushal Mendis played some excellent sweep shots in the second innings but got dismissed by playing an unnecessary attacking shot. He made 45, but should have played a bigger knock to frustrate the English bowlers.

The Lankan batsmen could not exhibit the proper footwork against the turning ball. They should have stayed more on their backfoot instead of committing themselves too early on the front-foot.

Tailender Suranga Lakmal did the same and his brief innings demonstrated that the English spinners could actually be handled with better footwork. In general, the standard of the Lankan batting was below par and resembled that of a club side at times.

#4. Sri Lankan spinners were ordinary and the English batsmen played them easily:

Ben Foakes

The pitch was tailor-made for the Sri Lankan spinners, but they failed to make good use of it. None of the Sri Lankan spinners bowled top-spinners and generated bounce off the pitch. They also did not use the width of the crease to vary the angle of the deliveries. As a result, they were predictable most of the times and the English batsmen did not have to toil too hard to make runs.

Foakes and Jennings showed that the Lankan spinners can be handled easily, even on a turning track. Foakes played some excellent shots in his debut Test and took the battle to the Lankan camp. Jennings, meanwhile, was solid in his approach and played some nice sweep shots against the spinners.

The Lankans might consider playing another pacer with Lakmal in the second Test as they do not seem to have too many good spinners at their disposal. A new-ball bowler, who can bowl with an upright seam and swing it occasionally, might come in handy in the second Test.

Dilruwan Perera took 5 wickets in the first innings of England and contributed some runs with his bat too. Apart from Mathews, he is the only Lankan player who should be satisfied with his performance in the first Test.