Sri Lanka v England 2018

What an innings from Sam Curran.
Very cool head on young shoulders.

Yes very good from Curran, saving England's innings when it looked like folding. Sri Lanka made 336 in their innings with 9 wickets falling to spin and the other was a run out.

A century from Root and a good 7th wicket stand between him and Foakes have put England is a reasonable position after they were wobbling a bit at 219/6. Root is out now for 124 and the stand of 82 leaves England on 301/7.

England on the 4th morning are 346 all out, making the lead exactly 300.

It would have been a lead of 295, but England's first innings total was revised from 285 to 290 after the unusual award of 5 penalty runs when Sri Lanka's Roshen Silva was deemed to have deliberately run short.

Sri Lanka close on 226/7, needing another 75 for victory. This makes England favourites going into the last day, having taken 2 late wickets, after Sri Lanka had been looking pretty good on 221/5.

England closed the match this morning winning by 57 runs.

The number of wickets taken by spinners in this match was 38 - the most in a test ever.

More importantly, England have won 2 successive away tests for the first time in 6 years.

The 3rd and final test starts on Friday.

England have had an excellent tour of Sri Lanka in both white ball and red ball.
They appear to have gone in with a clear game plan and mindset which has served them well.
The ground fielding and catching has been especially good most particularly in the tests. This helps saves runs and is a vital element of the game which is sometimes underappreciated imo.
Well done England .

Jonny Bairstow seized his opportunity to play in place of the injured Sam Curran and made a century on the 1st day of the final test. Stuart Broad is also in for the rested James Anderson and with Joe Root winning his 8th successive toss in Test cricket England batted on what looks like a decent enough wicket. Baistow was eventually out for 110.

England closed the day on 312/7. If the evidence of the series so far is anything to go by, this is looking like a competitive score.