Bowlers Dominate Second Day In Galle

Bowlers Dominate Second Day In Galle

Graeme Swann (far right) celebrates the wicket of Kumar Sangakkara (front left) on a day in Galle where he took four of 17 wickets to fall

©REUTERS / Action Images

Sri Lanka 316 (Jayawardene 180) & 84-5 v
England 193 (Bell 52, Herath 6-74)
First Test, Galle, day two
Scorecard | Day One

Sri Lanka closed a bowler-dominated second day of the first Test against England in Galle 209 runs ahead with five second-innings wickets in hand.

They closed their first innings on 316 and after Rangana Herath returned six for 74 in bowling England out for 193, they closed on 84 for five.

Graeme Swann picked up figures of four for 28 to leave the match in the balance as 17 wickets fell on the day - the most to fall in a single day at the ground, beating the previous high of 15.

Mahela Jaywardene added 12 to his overnight score of 168 before he was dismissed for 180 early on and only Ian Bell, who scored 52 in 87 balls, settled for England.

Although later in the day the spin bowlers dominated, the early blows landed by England came from James Anderson who had Jayawardene caught behind and Chanaka Welagedara bowled for 19 to ensure his side were batting reasonably quickly.

They then started losing wickets just as quickly. Alastair Cook fell without scoring in the second over, trapped in front by Suranga Lakmal and he was the first of six England to fall to the same manner of dismissal.

Andrew Strauss (26) became the first victim of Herath - trapped in front - before Jonathan Trott was stumped, losing his balance and losing not just his wicket, but his bat as he tumbled to the turf.

Kevin Pietersen was bowled by Welagedara before Prior (7), Samit Patel (2) and Stuart Broad (28) were all trapped by Herath.

All the while at the other end, Bell had put his dismal run of low scores against Pakistan behind him to stroke five fours and a six on his way to a fluent half-century that included some excellent footwork and classy drives.

He was eventually beaten by Herath who bowled him and it was Suraj Randiv who picked up the other two wickets to fall, Graeme Swann (24) clipping him to Tillakaratne Dilshan at short midwicket and Monty Panesar (13) trapped in front.

Anderson was left unbeaten on 23 in 26 balls.

Knowing that early wickets were the only way of keeping themselves in the game, England got what they needed when Broad burst through Dilshan's attempted flick through midwicket and bowled him for a two-ball duck.

Then it was over to Swann. He had Lahiru Thirimanne (6) bowled and then removed Jayawardene for five as he edged to Anderson at slip which made the score 14 for three. Sri Lanka's top three wickets in both innings have now managed just 29 runs.

Next to go was Kumar Sangakkara who edged to Bell at gully, who took a sharp catch and the final dismissal saw Thilan Samaraweera (36) get in a tangle and end up being stumped by a long way.

Unbeaten at stumps were Dinesh Chandimal (17) and nightwatchman Suraj Randiv (2).

© Cricket World 2012