Whenever overseas teams like England, South Africa, Australia or New Zealand come to the Indian sub-continent it is always assumed that those teams will be blown away by the spin attack of the hosts. But on 18th November 2018, England proved that with changing times, they are also now capable enough to win Test series using a squad full of spinners. It was the second Test match at Pallekele and England were already 1-0 up in the squad. They played three spinners in the first Test which included Moeen Ali, Jack Leach, and Adil Rashid to take care of the spin department.
Joe Root won an important toss but England could not deliver the batting performance they were looking for in the first innings. At one stage they were 176 for 7 but Sam Curran helped them to recover to 290 thanks to his 64. Jos Buttler was the second-highest scorer with 63. The pitch was already helping the spinners and nine out of the 10 English wickets were picked up by Sri Lankan spinners.
Sri Lanka responded with 336 and took a 46 runs lead in a match which was becoming more and more spin-dependent with every passing over. Roshen Silva was the star for Sri Lanka with his 85 as there were also fifties from Dimuth Karunaratne and Dhananjaya de Silva. 8 wickets were shared between Leach, Moin, and Rashid.
Joe Root played the key innings during England’s second dig as he scores an outstanding century and ended with 124. It was one of Root’s best innings as Ben Foakes also contributed with 65 in England’s total of 346. He added valuable 41 runs in the tenth wicket with James Anderson. All the 10 wickets were taken by Sri Lankan spinners including AkilaDhananjaya who finished with 6 for 115.
Chasing 301, Sri Lanka did not start well. Leach opened the bowling with Anderson and took three early wickets to put Sri Lanka under lots of pressure. Karunaratne and Angelo Mathews added 77 runs in the 4th wicket as Karunaratne scored his second fifty of the match. Mathews played well and added 73 runs with Roshen Silva and 45 runs with NiroshanDickwella.
At 221 for 5, it looked that the match has turned towards Sri Lanka but Moin provided the breakthrough by getting Mathews out for 88. The last four wickets were also shared by Moin and Leach as Sri Lanka folded for 243 giving England a 57-run win and a 2-0 lead in the 3-match series. All the 10 wickets were taken by England’s spin trio of Moin, Leach, and Rashid and it proves that this England team not only can compete but can win also in conditions alien to them.
