Sri Lanka vs England 2021: England Becomes The First Team In The History Of Test Cricket To Dismiss All The Opposition Batsmen With Pacers In First Innings And With Spinners In The Second

England Cricket Team notched up a unique record during the ongoing second Test against hosts Sri Lanka in Galle as they became the first side in the history of the game to dismiss all the opposition batsmen with pacers in the first innings and with spinners in the second innings.

Coming into the second Test, all eyes were on English spinners as to whether they would be able to emulate their performances from the last game at the same venue where both of them claimed a five-wicket haul in the first and second innings respectively. While Dom Bess achieved a five-for- albeit thanks to some pretty ordinary batting by Sri Lanka- in the first innings, his partner Jack Leach did the same in the second.

However, the spinners failed to come to the party in the first innings of the second Test. The likes of Angelo Matthews (110), Dinesh Chandimal (52), Niroshan Dickwell (92), and Dilruwan Perera (67) played both Bess and Leach brilliantly as they registered a combined figure of 0/195 in 64 overs.

It was once again the old workhorse in Jimmy Anderson, who came to England’s rescue. The champion pacer registered his best-ever figures in Asia, claiming 6-40 in 29 overs on what was a pretty benign Galle wicket. Mark Wood chipped in with three while Sam Curran claimed one as Sri Lanka were eventually dismissed for 381.

England, riding on the back on yet another masterclass in how to play spin in Asian conditions by their skipper Joe Root (186), managed to get close to Sri Lanka’s total of 381.

However, it was increasingly important clear that with the pitch starting to play tricks, the tourists needed their spin duo of Jack Leach and Dom Bess to come to the party in the second innings and ensure that Sri Lanka does not convert their first innings lead of 37 into a match-winning one.

And, although they were aided by yet another appalling display of batsmanship by the Sri Lankan batsmen, Bess [4/49] and Leach [4/59] did exactly that as they claimed eight wickets between them. Skipper Joe Root [2/0] then came to the party as he broke the dangerous-looking 48-run-stand between Lasith Embuldeniya and Suranga Lakmal before knocking over the No.11 to dismiss Sri Lanka for 126 in 35.5 overs.

Chasing 164 in the final innings, England once again lost an early wicket in the form of Zak Crawley but Dom Sibley and Jonny Bairstow (29) settled the nerves with a counter-attacking 45-run-stand for the 2nd wicket. Embuldeniya proceeded to knock over Bairstow and Daniel Lawrence while Mendis got the prized scalp of Joe Root to reduce England to 4/89.

However, Sibley and Jos Buttler have since then held fort and at the time of writing England needed 45 more runs to win.

Also Read:Watch: Joe Root Sledges And Asks Dinesh Chandimal To Throw Away His Wicket, The Latter Obliges On The Very Next Ball