England battle to save unbeaten summer after ‘no thought’ batting leaves third Test in the balance

England struggled to keep the pressure on as Sri Lanka bowled and batted well on day three

Sri Lanka batted themselves into a strong position in the final session of the third day (Action Images via Reuters)

England were left facing an uphill battle to maintain their unbeaten Test summer after batting with “no thought” in the second innings.

There were signs of recklessness in the first innings, but in the second England seemed to have put all attempts at absorbing pressure to one side and came out swinging, aside from Jamie Smith’s punchy 67.

Ben Duckett was the first to fall to a drive from mid-on, with Ollie Pope dragging on shortly afterwards, but Dan Lawrence’s batting was the prime example of intent without caution.

In one notable moment, he charged down the pitch trying to hit the ball into the leg side, leaving all of his stumps exposed and the ball narrowly bouncing over before he was out for an aggressive 35 from as many balls, missing out on his best chance at a first Test half-century under Ben Stokes and Brendon McCullum.

Sir Alastair Cook described the innings on Test Match Special: “England are looking for quality. That wasn't an inning of quality, it was slogging. He plays better than that and I do feel frustrated for him. Even the one he did hit for six was still a totally risky shot.”

“There has been no thought from any of the batters. You’d have thought at least two would play the old way, or the ‘Test match’ way,” said Michael Vaughan on Test Match Special, which was largely true, until Smith came out to bat.

Smith took his counterattacking role seriously, and after one fell just out of reach of the fielder when he was on 15, he opened up. He was brought into the England side in place of specialist gloveman Ben Foakes largely for his ability to attack with the bat and add runs even when batting with the tail.

He absorbed some pressure when he came to the crease, before quickly motoring on to his half-century from just 43 deliveries.

Whereas the other batters had floundered, Smith played some stunning strokes, free-flowing but also cleanly striking the ball and offering little chance as he picked out the gaps in the field before hitting the ball straight to midwicket to depart for the top score of the innings of 67.

There was a brief entertaining cameo from Josh Hull, who had claimed his maiden Test wicket on day two, making the most of his 6-foot, 7-inch frame and left-handed angle to good effect. On day three, he came in at number 10 and hit a pull shot for six to bring up his first runs in Tests and his first maximum in first-class cricket.

Jamie Smith struck a crucial and entertaining 67 from 50 balls (Getty Images for Surrey CCC)

England slid to 156 all out within just 34 overs, their shortest innings at home since the first innings of the historic Headingley Test match in 2019, setting Sri Lanka 219 to win.

The fans had been left largely frustrated by a light-affected day on Saturday, which forced stand-in captain Pope to bowl 17 straight overs of spin after tea to keep the game going, before it was eventually called at 5.35pm. The following day despite the odd short-lived rain delay, the crowd left entertained, with 15 wickets falling before 5.18pm.

Chris Woakes took the first wicket with a stunning diving catch off his bowling, a big inside edge into the thigh pad that just bounced up and was caught to bring an end to Dimuth Karunaratne’s innings of just eight runs, leaving the chasing tourists 39 for one.

England kept their field attacking, despite the steady flow of runs off the bat, with Josh Hull and Woakes being regularly sent to the boundary, with four in the slips and one at gully as the score crept up to 65 for one.

Pathum Nissanka brought up his half-century, including seven fours, as Sri Lanka finished the day 94 for one needing another 125 runs with nine wickets remaining.