It is a slightly odd assertion, given that it started with them losing their first three wickets for six runs and limping to the first lunch break at 80 for five, but for most of the opening two days of this game Sri Lanka played well. They fought back to post an acceptable first-innings score, and their efforts in the field on Thursday were enterprising and regularly rewarded. But until Angelo Mathews and Kamindu Mendis led a late fightback, they flirted dangerously with marking the day that Manchester launched its annual Pride festival by surrendering their own.
At least Mathews regained his. Having failed to score in his team’s first innings and then punctuated their efforts in the field with a succession of half-hearted ball chases – at 37 he is perhaps not at his most athletic – in their second, and with his side in dire need, he batted his side, if not anywhere near ascendancy, at least back into the game.
At times he conjured memories of his great innings at Headingley a decade ago, before he fell for 65 to a combination of Chris Woakes and a changed and swinging ball. England will be grateful that similarities with that 2014 match did not get any more pronounced: on that occasion Sri Lanka scored 257 in the first innings and England made 365 in reply – an almost identical script to this game – before Mathews struck 160 to set up a comeback victory. Sri Lanka continue to dream of a similar outcome in 2024.
Mathews sauntered past the mark of 1,000 Test runs against England in just his 12th game against them, supported by Mendis, who by stumps had passed 50 for the fifth time in just seven Test innings. Together they provided an infusion of the kind of class and quality which for a while Sri Lanka had misplaced. Combined with news that Dinesh Chandimal had not, as feared, had his thumb broken by a Mark Wood short ball, and a couple of dropped catches, they helped their side’s outlook track the day’s weather – initially dismal but brightening across the afternoon.
The first sign of trouble came before play even started, which was the puzzling moment Sri Lanka chose to make the first significant change to their field. Jerusalem played, the players came on, Prabath Jayasuriya got ready to bowl, and then everything stopped for a couple of minutes while some pads were brought on to allow Nishan Madushka to take up a position close to the bat. It seemed strange, chaotic, unplanned, all the more so when, once safely protected, Madushka ambled over to backward point. A few overs later the pads were called for once again, and this time he spent the next over at midwicket, and the one after that at gully.