Home Cricket National Cricket Mathews holds the fort with a maiden ton at Galle

Mathews holds the fort with a maiden ton at Galle

England tour of Sri Lanka 2021

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Sri Lanka’s most experienced batsman Angelo Mathews produced a brilliant century today (22nd January) at the Galle International Cricket Stadium against the visiting English unit in the 2nd Test of the 2-match series securing Sri Lanka the upper hand at the stumps.

Sri Lanka skipper Dinesh Chandimal won the toss and decided to bat first in the 2nd Test against England which commenced today (22nd January) at the Galle International Cricket Stadium.

Video – Sri Lanka search for victory against dominant England – Preview – 2nd Test

After the embarrassing defeat at the hand of the visitors in the 1st Test, the Lankans made a few changes to their playing XI including the exclusion of Kusal Mendis who has had a horrible run since the South African tour. The other players to sit out were all-rounder Dasun Shanaka and leg spinner Wanindu Hasaranga who went wicketless in the last two successive games.

Seamer Suranga Lakmal was added into the playing XI while Oshada Fernando who was sidelined throughout the LPL and the South Africa tour also made his return after an ankle injury. The other change was the inclusion of bowling all-rounder Ramesh Mendis who is making his debut as Sri Lanka’s 154th Test cap. Mendis is an impressive off-spinner who has proved his worth in the domestic setup and Sri Lanka A/Emerging teams and also boasts a first-class triple century against Negombo Cricket Club in 2019/2020 FC season.

The Sri Lankan team was made to sweat again in the morning session as they lost Kusal Perera and Oshada Fernando and were reduced to 7/2 bringing back the memories of the 1st Test match again. Perera tried to produce an expansive drive but could only send the ball to the slips where Joe Root collected it safely completing a sharp catch. Fernando chopped onto his stumps off James Anderson’s bowling as the seamer was gifted two wickets in the same over by the Lankan pair.

Video – “පළමු තරගයට වඩා හොඳ සූදානමකින් ඉන්නවා” – දිනේෂ් චන්දිමාල්

However, after that early collapse, Lahiru Thirimanne and Angelo Mathews anchored down and played sensibly without being separated until Lunch. Thirimanne looked promising with his stroke play as the southpaw found the gaps comfortably and used his eye-catching drives to good effect. But soon after the Lunch break Thirimanne perished poking outside off to Anderson’s bowling for a well-made 43. This is the 8th instance where Thirimanne was dismissed by the English seamer and he averages only 4.57 against Anderson.

After that early dismissal in the afternoon session, skipper Chandimal and Mathews kept the scoreboard ticking without any risks as the English spinners failed to have any impact on the game. However, Anderson and speedster Mark Wood kept running in and troubled the pair a few times, especially Wood with the short ball.

The batting pair added 177 runs to the 4th wicket as both of them reached fifties but Wood finally had some luck with the wicket of Chandimal after being wicketless in the tour so far. Wood’s 8-over spell in the post Tea session also deserves a mention as the pacer kept steaming in at 140+ Kph in hot conditions.

Former skipper Mathews was rock solid throughout his innings and went onto register his 11th Test ton while going past Aravinda de Silva in the top scorers’ list in Sri Lanka. This is also the first century for Mathews at Galle which means he is unseated from top of the list of highest runs scorers in a single venue without a century. (1342 runs at Galle before this match)

Since the start of 2018, Angelo Mathews has averaged 70.88 against spin in Tests. Of players to have faced 1000+ balls in that time, only Pujara, Babar, Kohli, Williamson, Latham and Labuschagne average more than the Sri Lankan and the spin duo of England could do no harm against Mathews’ defense today.

Video – “මම ගාල්ල තණතීරුවේ මීට කලින් සෙල්ලම් කරලා නැහැ” – ඕෂද ප්‍රනාන්දු

Sri Lanka safely managed to reach 229/4 at the stumps with Mathews on 107 and new comer Niroshan Dickwella on 19 unbeaten. Tomorrow will be a crucial day in the match as Sri Lanka will look to post a huge first innings total against the visitors to secure the upper hand of the contest.

Keep it logged into ThePapare.com for the latest updates, news, videos, photos and scorecards of this series.

Result


Sri Lanka
381/10 (139.3) & 126/10 (35.5)

England
344/10 (116.1) & 164/4 (43.3)

Batsmen R B 4s 6s SR
Lahiru Thirimanne c Jos Buttler b James Anderson 43 95 5 0 45.26
Kusal Perera c Joe Root b James Anderson 6 14 1 0 42.86
Oshada Fernando b James Anderson 0 4 0 0 0.00
Angelo Mathews c Jos Buttler b James Anderson 110 238 11 0 46.22
Dinesh Chandimal lbw b Mark Wood 52 121 4 1 42.98
Niroshan Dickwella c Jack Leach b James Anderson 92 144 10 0 63.89
Ramesh Mendis c Jos Buttler b Mark Wood 0 16 0 0 0.00
Dilruwan Perera c Jack Leach b Sam Curran 67 170 8 1 39.41
Suranga Lakmal c Zak Crawley b James Anderson 0 2 0 0 0.00
Lasith Embuldeniya c Joe Root b Mark Wood 7 33 0 1 21.21
Asitha Fernando not out 0 10 0 0 0.00


Extras 4 (b 0 , lb 2 , nb 1, w 1, pen 0)
Total 381/10 (139.3 Overs, RR: 2.73)
Fall of Wickets 1-7 (4.1) Kusal Perera, 2-7 (4.5) Oshada Fernando, 3-76 (26.2) Lahiru Thirimanne, 4-193 (68.6) Dinesh Chandimal, 5-232 (88.6) Angelo Mathews, 6-243 (91.6) Ramesh Mendis, 7-332 (120.4) Niroshan Dickwella,

Bowling O M R W Econ
James Anderson 29 13 40 6 1.38
Sam Curran 18.3 3 60 1 3.28
Jack Leach 38 5 119 0 3.13
Mark Wood 28 4 84 3 3.00
Dominic Bess 26 2 76 0 2.92
Batsmen R B 4s 6s SR
Dominic Sibley lbw b Lasith Embuldeniya 0 14 0 0 0.00
Zak Crawley c Lahiru Thirimanne b Lasith Embuldeniya 5 24 0 0 20.83
Jonathan Bairstow c Oshada Fernando b Lasith Embuldeniya 28 73 5 0 38.36
Joe Root run out (Oshada Fernando) 186 309 18 0 60.19
Dan Lawrence c Lahiru Thirimanne b Lasith Embuldeniya 3 21 0 0 14.29
Jos Buttler c Oshada Fernando b Ramesh Mendis 55 95 7 0 57.89
Sam Curran c Lahiru Thirimanne b Lasith Embuldeniya 13 43 0 1 30.23
Dominic Bess c Lahiru Thirimanne b Lasith Embuldeniya 32 95 4 0 33.68
Mark Wood c Lahiru Thirimanne b Lasith Embuldeniya 1 6 0 0 16.67
Jack Leach lbw b Dilruwan Perera 1 17 0 0 5.88
James Anderson not out 4 5 1 0 80.00


Extras 16 (b 8 , lb 3 , nb 5, w 0, pen 0)
Total 344/10 (116.1 Overs, RR: 2.96)
Bowling O M R W Econ
Suranga Lakmal 16 7 31 0 1.94
Lasith Embuldeniya 42 6 137 7 3.26
Asitha Fernando 10 2 31 0 3.10
Dilruwan Perera 32.1 4 86 1 2.68
Ramesh Mendis 16 1 48 1 3.00
Batsmen R B 4s 6s SR
Kusal Perera lbw b Jack Leach 14 25 2 0 56.00
Lahiru Thirimanne c Zak Crawley b Jack Leach 13 33 0 0 39.39
Oshada Fernando c Zak Crawley b Dominic Bess 3 19 0 0 15.79
Angelo Mathews b Dominic Bess 5 11 0 0 45.45
Dinesh Chandimal c James Anderson b Jack Leach 9 6 2 0 150.00
Niroshan Dickwella c Dan Lawrence b Dominic Bess 7 14 1 0 50.00
Ramesh Mendis c Jos Buttler b Jack Leach 16 20 3 0 80.00
Dilruwan Perera c Zak Crawley b Dominic Bess 4 13 0 0 30.77
Suranga Lakmal not out 11 32 1 0 34.38
Lasith Embuldeniya c Jonathan Bairstow b Joe Root 40 42 6 1 95.24
Asitha Fernando b Joe Root 0 1 0 0 0.00


Extras 4 (b 3 , lb 0 , nb 1, w 0, pen 0)
Total 126/10 (35.5 Overs, RR: 3.52)
Bowling O M R W Econ
James Anderson 2 0 6 0 3.00
Sam Curran 2 0 9 0 4.50
Dominic Bess 16 1 49 4 3.06
Jack Leach 14 1 59 4 4.21
Joe Root 1.5 1 0 2 0.00


Batsmen R B 4s 6s SR
Zak Crawley c Oshada Fernando b Lasith Embuldeniya 13 19 1 0 68.42
Dominic Sibley not out 56 144 2 0 38.89
Jonathan Bairstow lbw b Lasith Embuldeniya 29 28 3 1 103.57
Joe Root b 11 16 1 0 68.75
Dan Lawrence c Niroshan Dickwella b Lasith Embuldeniya 2 9 0 0 22.22
Jos Buttler not out 46 48 1 0 95.83


Extras 7 (b 0 , lb 4 , nb 3, w 0, pen 0)
Total 164/4 (43.3 Overs, RR: 3.77)
Bowling O M R W Econ
Lasith Embuldeniya 20 3 73 3 3.65
Dilruwan Perera 13.3 1 39 0 2.93
Ramesh Mendis 10 0 48 1 4.80