Live Cricket Score of England vs Sri Lanka, 2nd Test, Day 2 at Chester-le-Street

[JUGRAJ SINGH]

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Stumps: 91 for 8
Another lopsided day in the series that was dominated by England. It all began with a sparkling ton by Moeen Ali to take England past 400 and after the fall of the 9th wicket, Cook decided to declare the innings two runs short of 500. And from there on the tale was all too familiar. Kusal Mendis resisted a little but the others kept walking back one after the other as Woakes picked up three wickets. Broad chipped in with two in the end to finish up with three as Sri Lanka finish the day 407 runs short of England's first innings total.

Finally:
That was Sri Lanka's longest partnership in terms of balls and that tells you something doesn't it? Broad finally ends it as Herath nicks one to the slip cordon. Eranga then comes in and is dismissed for 2. Another one nicked to the slip cordon where Root leaps but fails to grab it only for Vince to catch the rebound. That was a superb effort.

Blockathon:
This is some serious effort from Herath and Thirimanne. They just keep defending whatever is thrown at them as we now head to the final ten overs of the day. Can they survive until the close?

Another one:
What a spell this is turning out to be from Chris Woakes! He gets rid of Siriwardana for a duck now and Lanka are already six down. He played away from his body and gets an outside edge which is safely pouched by Bairstow. Herath is out there at number eight.


Mendis's resistance ends
From 44 for 1, Sri Lanka have slipped to 67 for 5. Woakes is on a roll. He took 9 for 36 the other week against Notts in County Championship and he has continued to bowl with good form, here. Back of a length delivery and Woakes gets good bounce on it. Maybe it nipped away a touch, too. Mendis stays back and tries to keep it out. However, the ball gets big on him, resulting in it hitting the splice of the bat and Anderson at gully plucked the catch to his left. Mendis was opened up in his defence and he could not have done much there as that was a cracker of a delivery.


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Woakes strikes: England's freefall continues
Mathews wasted a review. Clearly an edge there. He must have known that it took the edge. The ball came in with the angle and straightened pretty late, almost when it reached the batsman. Mathews was opened a bit and edged it, in fact the bat hit his pad also. That might have confused him a bit. The umpire and the fielders were not in doubt though. Aleem Dar raised his finger almost instantly and the third umpire confirmed it with the hotspot.

Chandimal goes: Sri Lanka 53 for 3
Chandimal went with hard hands on this one. It was a typical Anderson delivery, a dreaded one. Pitched in and then changed its path. The thick edge carried at a nice height to Cook at first slip. Sri Lanka are nosediving here after a brief resistance.

Wicket: Kaushal Silva falls
This was a length delivery outside off, it might have straightened a bit and that led to Silva's dismissal as he poked at it. Got a thick outside edge that just about carried into Bairstow's glove. 25 minutes into the session and England have got the second one.




Tea: Sri Lanka 31 for 1
Another session firmly in England's kitty. After finally declaring for a whopping 498 at a run rate of 3.77, Anderson cleaned up Karunaratne in the seven overs that the visitors faced before the break to make matters worse. 498, a considerable effort given that they started the day with just four wickets in hand was achieved thanks largely to Moeen Ali, who played a gem of an innings scoring his second Test ton. With Woakes and Finn providing perfect second foil, he dominated the bowling with ease. He was helped though by some abysmal fielding and some defensive captaincy from Mathews. Do join us in 20 minutes for the final session.


First wicket: Karunaratne bowled
And Anderson strikes in his second over. Of all the ways a batsman loses his wicket in a Test match, this has to be one of the most heartbreaking ones. He has lost his wicket round the legs, that too to a pacer. He would have preferred getting out trying to drive the ball rather than losing his stumps round the legs after moving way too across to tuck this one. The ball shaped back in a touch and eluded his bat and every gear, which means Karunaratne moved way too across. Anderson is on the board! Will it open the floodgates?

Kusal Mendis walks out to bat at No. 3.

And we are back
James Anderson to start as expected. Karunnaratne to face and Silva is with him. This should be interesting, the sun is out as well.

England declare: Moeen 155* lifts them to 498 for 9
And so after punishing the hapless Sri Lankan bowlers, England have finally declared just short of 500. Moeen Ali, after given a reprieve, remains unbeaten on 155. His crucial partnerships with Woakes and Finn means England are firmly on top. Sri Lanka, after a horror show with the bat in the first Test, will aim to come up with a much-improved performance.

Let's wait and watch how things pan out.

300 for Herath: Steven Finn falls
Rangana Herath joins the 300-wicket club in Tests but not before he was made to toil for 29 overs. He has largely been a lone warrior for Sri Lanka since the retirement of Muralitharan. Remember, him making his Test debut against Australia way back in 1999 against Australia in Kandy. He has come a long way since then. Herath holds the ball and shows it to the pavilion and gets a good round of applause.

Finn and Moeen Ali added 72 for the ninth wicket to take England past 450.


Ton for Moeen:
It's been a superb knock from Moeen and he has been very busy post lunch finding gaps to fetch some quick runs. And now with a boundary, he gets to his second Test ton off 152 deliveries. Sri Lanka look flat waiting for something to happen. England are adding some vital runs as the total edges towards the 450-mark.

Lunch on Day 2: England 408 for 8
Moeen Ali (85) has been solid the first session and is inching towards his second Test. Both Ali and Woakes settled down to add 92 runs for the seventh wicket before the latter and Broad fell in quick succession. Sri Lanka were scratchy to begin with and dropped both Ali and Woakes in the first hour. England have crossed the 400-run mark and Angelo Mathews will probably rue the missed opportunities considering batting is Sri Lanka's weak link.


And one more: Broad falls
Broad nicks one and Pradeep is just one short of a fifer. Second grab for Kusal Mendis in the space of 13 balls. This was drifted in around middle from a length, just a slight away movement and that's all enough to produce an edge from Stuart Broad.

Wicket: Finally a wicket for Sri Lanka
Nicked and gone! Woakes has looked tentative in that fifth, sixth stump zone and he perishes trying to chase one. Pitched on a perfect length and probing away outside off stump, Woakes feet is stuck in blob. He goes fishing with a vertical bat and nicks it to Kusal - No jitters from Mendis. FYI: Dinesh Chandimal is off the field and Kusal Mendis has taken eth keeping duties.


50 for Moeen Ali
The England left-hander is making the most of the dropped chance. He gets to his fifty off 109 balls and looks at ease at the moment. Woakes and Ali have now added 67 runs for the seventh wicket. This stand will surely hurt the visitors later.


Dropped: Moeen Ali survives
In the airrrrrrrrr and dropped! Karunaratne is the man who has shelled it. This was slightly short of length and outside off, Ali slashes hard and gets an outside edge, the ball flew to first gully where the fielder bursts through his hands. The ball runs away towards third man region and the pair add a couple to the tally.

Woakes survives too now. One more has been put down and Chandimal is the culprit. A straight forward chance has been shelled. This was an outstanding delivery from Eranga, hits it on a length and gets it to shape away off the deck, Woakes has poke at that, gets a thick outside edge but Chandimal doesn't cling on it. The ball runs away into the fence.

Alright then, the Sri Lankan players are out there, Moeen Ali is on strike, Chris Woakes with him, Nuwan Pradeep to start with the ball and we are all set to rock and roll ...

With Moeen Ali and Chris Woakes at the crease, England would hope to add useful runs on Day 2. For the tourists, they need to run through England's rather formidable lower-order as soon as possible. Even if they clean up the hosts rather quickly, they have the daunting task of weathering the pace trio of Anderson, Broad and Finn. It is expected to be another cloudy day, but the rain might just stay away.

However, just when Root looked set to compile a ton, he fell to Nuwan Pradeep. Alastair Cook, though, failed again and now finds himself five runs short of achieving the milestone of 10,000 Test runs. Nick Compton's staid methods didn't bear fruit as Lakmal took a blinder in the deep to dismiss him. In fact, the Sri Lankans pouched some stunners to keep themselves in the game. Pradeep was rewarded for his perseverance with three scalps.
 
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