England bowled out Sri Lanka for 125 and won the opening match of the World Test Championship by an innings and 101 runs in a thrilling final day.
England's bowlers were virtually unplayable on a surface that was alien to that of the first day. There was seam, swing and uneven bounce to contend with and every one of England's bowlers caused problems. Fred Trueman and Jimmy Anderson opened the bowling and gave Jayasuriya and Sangakkara a torrid time. Jayasuriya was out in the 3rd over of the day, bowled by Jimmy Anderson.
Kumar Sangakkara tried to fend off a Trueman bouncer the next over and edged it down the leg side. Alan Knott made a brilliant diving effort but failed to hold on to the catch. Trueman was lucky to trap Sangakkara LBW a few overs later but thoroughly deserved his wicket. Sri Lanka were 33-2 when bad light stopped play. 15 minutes play were lost and it allowed Sri Lanka to limp to lunch on 45 for 2.
Mahela Jayawardene lobbed a simple catch back to Derek Underwood just after lunch to make Sri Lanka 56 for 3. Atapattu and Karunaratne then stuck around and were batting well. England needed a breakthrough as Sri Lanka were 82 for 3 with an hour to go to tea. Stokes turned to Trueman who delivered with his 3rd ball, ripping out Marvan Atapattus middle stump with a ferocious inswinger.
15 minutes later, Sydney Barnes bowled Karunaratne sending his off stump carwheeling and Sri Lanka were staring down the barrel. They were 5 down with just under an hour to go until tea.
Sri Lankas 100 came up from 300 balls and then Sydney Barnes finally swung the game in Englands favour. He took 3 wickets in 3 consecutive overs with 3 catches in the slip cordon as Sri Lanka crumbled from 108 for 5 to 108 for 8.
Sri Lanka made it to tea on 112-8. Within half an hour after the final session, Sri Lanka had come off for bad light once again. This time they were off for an hour and it was starting to look like a draw might be possible for the visitors.
The umpires finally decided it was bright enough to play and Jimmy Anderson struck within a few minutes of the resumption. He dug one in short to Chaminda Vaas who lobbed up an easy catch to Dennis Compton at extra cover. A few overs later he struck the final blow, as Malinga top edged a pull shot and Alan Knott took the winning catch.
England won by an Innings and 101 runs and thoroughly deserved their win. England head to Brisbane next to take on Australia. Sri Lanka go back home and will take on India in their next game.
England 1st Innings 677-8 (169.3 Ov)
WR Hammond 170, L Hutton 167, BA Stokes 147, KP Petersen 131, SL Malinga 4-134, WPUJC Vaas 2-108
Sri Lanka 1st Innings 451-10 (170.2 Ov)
ST Jayasuriya 234, WPUJC Vaas 52, M Muralitharan 40*, SF Barnes 5-90, DL Underwood 2-63
Sri Lanka 2nd Innings 125-10 (66.2 Ov)
MS Atapattu 27, SF Barnes 4-31, JM Anderson 3-15, FS Trueman 2-28
England win by an innings and 101 runs
Man of the match: A difficult choice for such a fantastic game. 1250 runs scored, 4 centurions, 1 double centurion and 9 wickets in the game for Sydney Barnes.
The award goes to Sydney Barnes though. His spell on the final afternoon especially, turned the game Englands way and Sri Lanka may have made it to the end without his performance.
Man of the Match: Sydney Barnes (1st innings 33.2-8-90-5, 2nd innings 19-8-31-4)
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