Pathum Nissanka‘s superb unbeaten fifty left Sri Lanka eyeing a memorable win over England as the third Test at the Oval headed for a dramatic finish. Sri Lanka were 94-1 when bad light led to an early close on Sunday’s third day, needing a further 125 runs to reach a victory target of 219 that would end a run of seven successive Test defeats by England. Dimuth Karunaratne was caught and bowled by Chris Woakes for eight when a drive ballooned off his pad. But fellow opener Nissanka, who made 64 in Sri Lanka’s first innings, was 53 not out having gone to his second fifty of the match in style when he blazed debutant left-arm quick Josh Hull through the covers for a seventh four in 42 balls faced.
The recalled Kusal Mendis, meanwhile, pounced on numerous loose deliveries during an unbeaten 30 featuring 24 runs in boundaries.
That Sri Lanka were chasing a target in excess of 200 was mainly down to Jamie Smith‘s superb counter-attacking 67 that rescued England from a dramatic collapse.
England, already 2-0 up in this three-match series, lost five wickets for 26 runs in slumping to 82-7 before wicketkeeper Smith’s dashing display on his Surrey home ground helped them recover to 156 all out.
His innings left England, who routed the West Indies 3-0 earlier in the season, with renewed hope of a first home Test clean sweep since 2004 when Michael Vaughan led them to seven successive wins.
Smith fell on the stroke of tea when he chipped Vishwa Fernando to short midwicket to end a brilliant 50-ball innings featuring 10 fours and a six.
Left-arm quick Vishwa Fernando, gaining prodigious swing, also captured the prize scalp of Joe Root for just 12 on his way to 3-40, with Lahiru Kumara enjoying a fine return of 4-21 in seven overs.
Former England captains Michael Vaughan and Alastair Cook had criticised the hosts for sloppy batting while slumping from 221-3 to 325 all out in their first innings.
It is unlikely either of the old batsmen would have been impressed by opener Ben Duckett holing out for seven off Asitha Fernando.
Ollie Pope, fresh from 154 in England’s first innings — his first Test century since taking over as captain from the injured Ben Stokes — also fell for seven by chopping on to Kumara.
Dan Lawrence, a middle-order batsman by trade, had been promoted to open this series in place of the injured Zak Crawley.
The 27-year-old had yet to get the 30s in four innings against Sri Lanka and it was a similar story on Sunday for all he lofted Asitha Fernando for six.
Lawrence, however, chanced his luck once too often when he charged at Kumara only to edge behind to wicketkeeper Dinesh Chandimal for a run-a-ball 35 that ended up being England’s second-top score of the innings.
Root’s square-driven boundary off Vishwa Fernando meant he surpassed Sri Lanka great Kumar Sangakkara‘s tally of 12,400 Test runs to go into sixth place in the all-time list.
Two balls later, however, Vishwa Fernando’s excellent inswinging yorker struck Root on the boot and he was lbw.
Brook was also lbw to another fine inswinger from Vishwa Fernando.
Smith counter-attacked, scoring 20 runs in one over from fast bowler Milan Rathnayake that featured a flashing cut for four and crunching pull for six off successive deliveries.
He also lofted Rathnayake down the ground for four before ending the over by punching the paceman through the covers for another boundary.
Earlier, Olly Stone and 20-year-old quick Hull did the bulk of the damage as Sri Lanka, who resumed on 211-5, lost their last five first-innings wickets for 52 runs in 16.2 overs, with captain Dhananjaya de Silva and Kamindu Mendis unable to add signficantly to their overnight unbeaten fifties.
Stone took 3-35 in nine overs and the towering Hull 3-53 in 11.
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