On a beige surface as dry and crumbly as a forgotten biscuit at the bottom of the tin England, with the considerable benefit of batting first, put some runs on the board – 285 of them. Whether that is enough to control the game we must wait to know for sure but the likelihood is that this is a highly satisfactory total. It is certain that this surface is offering more help to the spinners than the one in Galle and the contest is likely to be mesmerising, which is nearly always the case when the pitch possesses a few demons and runs are at a premium.
The main contributors were Jos Buttler and Sam Curran, who hit 63 and 64 respectively and both innings were brimful of bravura. For most butlers spending much of the day sweeping is a task well below their station, but this is certainly not the case with England’s new number five. Fifty-one of Buttler’s runs came from a miscellany of sweeps, the paddle, the reverse, the slog and even the occasional orthodox one; five of his runs were taken from the paceman, Suranga Lakmal, so just eight more against the spinners came, rather boringly, via a vertical bat. This was a knock of remarkable daring and skill; inevitably it ended with a miscued reverse sweep.
Equally gobsmacking was yet another virtuoso effort from the precocious Curran at the end of the innings. Initially Curran displayed more restraint than any of the England batsmen; it took him 50 balls to reach double figures. But when last man Jimmy Anderson came to the crease Curran accelerated in the most spectacular manner. He hit six sixes against the spinners despite there being six men on the boundary most of the time. The last wicket partnership of 60 was the largest of the innings and when Malinda Pushpakumara dropped Curran on 51, a straightforward chance at long-on, the Sri Lankans were in despair.
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