11.52am In isolation, that was a very good session for Sri Lanka, even though they're so far behind as far as the match goes. Asita Fernando shows traces of what he can do if he is persisted with. I felt he was underbowled yesterday, and the pace, intensity he showed today will surely encourage Chandimal/Karunaratne to bowl him more going forward.
Embuldeniya and Dilruwan did a bulk of the leg work, bowling 81 overs between them for seven wickets. They can take some heart from that, but it's now over to the batsmen to prove to themselves, if not for anyone else, that they can do what England have, in their own conditions. Not going to be easy though because there's grip and turn on the surface, and there's also a small matter of the batsmen dealing with a crisis of confidence. Join Alan in about 40 minutes for the post-lunch session.
JE Root c Embuldeniya b MDK Perera 228 (476m 321b 18x4 1x6) SR: 71.02
END OF OVER:117 | 9 Runs | ENG: 421/9
- Stuart Broad11 (13b)
- Joe Root228 (320b)
- Asitha Fernando14-1-44-2
- Dilruwan Perera36-2-109-3
END OF OVER:116 | 1 Run | ENG: 412/9
- Stuart Broad3 (11b)
- Joe Root227 (316b)
- Dilruwan Perera36-2-109-3
- Lasith Embuldeniya45-4-176-3