SL to chase 219 for victory after Smith’s counterattack stretches England lead

Innings England 325 and 156 (Smith 67, Kumara 4-21, Vishwa 3-40) lead Sri Lanka 263 (Dhananjaya 69, Kamindu 64, Nissanka 64, Stone 3-35, Hull 3-53) by 218 runs

Sri Lanka will chase 219 for victory in the third and final Test after bowling England out for 156 in their second innings.

Sri Lanka’s bowlers were making the ball move in what were by far the brightest conditions of the match so far, despite a couple of short interruptions for what amounted to sun-showers. Vishwa was particularly devastating with his late inswingers pinning Joe Root and Harry Brook lbw.

But then Smith pummelled 67 runs off 50 balls, including 20 runs off one Milan Rathnayake over to lead England’s recovery from 82 for 7 to 140 for 8. Smith scored 52 off the last 19 balls he faced before he fell on the final ball before tea, picking out short midwicket to give Vishwa his third and England a lead of 202.

Two early strikes had given Sri Lanka hope during a morning session extended because of bad weather over the first two days as Ben Duckett and Ollie Pope – the standout performers of England’s first innings – fell cheaply.

The tourists grabbed hold of their chance in the afternoon as England lost a further five wickets before Smith marched to the crease and picked off 10 fours and a six.

Duckett was caught at mid-on off Asitha’s 12th delivery to depart for just 7, having made an aggressive 86 in the first innings, and Kumara came on for the last over before lunch and removed Pope with his fourth ball, edging onto his stumps, also for 7.

Dan Lawrence was one of only three England batters to reach double figures in their second innings so far with 35 runs that represented his best score of a difficult series.

He smashed Asitha for six over long-off and, two balls later, carved deftly through point for four. But, having bettered his previous series best by one run, he was brought undone by a Kumara delivery that moved away late and kissed the edge of the bat before landing in keeper Dinesh Chandimal’s gloves.

Vishwa entered the attack in the 15th over and he struck third ball with a superb inswinging yorker that hit Root on the boot directly in front.

Brook had come under fire for his petulant reaction to Sri Lanka’s successful bid to frustrate him by bowling outside off stump in the first innings. This time, he succumbed to another late inswinger which nailed the front pad with pin-point accuracy on leg stump in Vishwa’s next over.

Kumara had Chris Woakes caught behind for a six-ball duck but then Chandimal had to be helped off the field after diving stop a wayward delivery down the leg side to Gus Atkinson, apparently hurting his lower back in the process. Atkinson was trapped lbw by Rathnayake, having faced 14 balls for his 1 before Smith got stuck in.

Earlier, debutant Hull made amends for dropping Dhananjaya de Silva during a gloomy second evening when had the Sri Lanka skipper caught for 69 with his 11th ball of the day, his attempted pull sailing off the top edge to deep backward square.

That sparked a procession of five wickets for 52 runs in 13. 3 overs, Hull, Stone and Woakes sharing four of the five wickets to fall with Atkinson off the field nursing a thigh injury and spinner Shoaib Bashir taking the last.