CHESTER-LE-STREET: England opener Alex Hales hits a six as Sri Lanka wicket-keeper Dinesh Chandimal looks on during the second Test at Riverside on Friday.—AP
CHESTER-LE-STREET: England opener Alex Hales hits a six as Sri Lanka wicket-keeper Dinesh Chandimal looks on during the second Test at Riverside on Friday.—AP

CHESTER-LE-STREET: England captain Alastair Cook and opening partner Alex Hales missed out on contrasting landmarks on the first day of the second Test against Sri Lanka at the Riverside on Friday.

Cook failed to score the 20 runs he needed to become the first England batsman to reach 10,000 in Tests.

And for the second time in as many innings, Hales fell in the 80s when in sight of a maiden Test century.

At tea, England were 200 for three, with Joe Root 69 not out and James Vince 22 not out.

Left-handed batsman Cook started his innings patiently after winning the toss in overcast conditions.

However, his lone boundary, a whip pull up on one leg off Suranga Lakmal, was a kind of mirror image of the shot made famous by retired West Indies right-handed opener Gordon Greenidge.

But Lakmal, in for the injured Dushmantha Chameera, dismissed Cook when he had the 31-year-old Essex batsman, playing well away from his body and pushing outside off stump, well caught low to his left by a diving Dimuth Karunaratne at second slip.

Cook’s exit for 15, five runs shy of the 10,000 mark, left England 39 for one.

New batsman Nick Compton accepted in the build-up to this match he was playing for his Test place after his duck in England’s innings and 88-run win in the first of this three-match series at Headingley last week.

Compton, however, was out for nine when he top-edged a hook off Nuwan Pradeep and Lakmal, when it seemed the ball had cleared him, held a brilliant two-handed catch at long leg that left him facing the boundary and just inches from the rope.

Hales, 45 not out at lunch, completed a 131-ball fifty with eight fours.

Having made 86 at Headingley, he went into the 80s with a straight six off Milinda Siriwardana’s fourth delivery of the day.

But next ball, he left-arm spinner, replacing dropped medium-pacer Dasun Shanaka, had his revenge when Hales’s fiercely-edged cut was brilliantly caught one-handed by Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews at slip.

Hales was out for 83 off 145 balls, having added 96 with Root.

Yorkshire star Root threaded a superb cover drive through the in-field for four off Rangana Herath on his way to a 70-ball fifty, although the left-arm spinner almost had him stumped later on.

Scoreboard

ENGLAND (1st Innings):

A.N. Cook c Karunaratne b Lakmal 15 A.D. Hales c Mathews b Siriwardana 83 N.R.D. Compton c Lakmal b Pradeep 9 J.E. Root not out 69 J.M. Vince not out 22

EXTRAS (LB-2) 2

TOTAL (for three wkts, 61 overs) 200

FALL OF WKTS: 1-39, 2-64, 3-160.

TO BAT: J.M. Bairstow, Moeen Ali, C.R. Woakes, S.C.J. Broad, S.T. Finn, J.M. Anderson.

BOWLING: Eranga 15-2-49-0; Lakmal 13-3-37-1; Pradeep 12-3-38-1; Herath 17-0-55-0; Mathews 2-1-3-0; Siriwardana 2-0-16-1

SRI LANKA: F.D.M. Karunaratne, J.K. Silva, B.K.G. Mendis, L.D. Chandimal, A.D. Mathews, H.D.R.L. Thirimanne, T.A.M. Siriwardana, H.M.R.K.B. Herath, R.M.S. Eranga, N. Pradeep, R.A.S. Lakmal.

UMPIRES: Aleem Dar (Pakistan) and S. Ravi (India).

TV UMPIRE: R.J. Tucker (Australia).

MATCH REFEREE: A.J. Pycroft (Zimbabwe).

Published in Dawn, May 28th, 2016

Opinion

Editorial

Defining extremism
Updated 18 Mar, 2024

Defining extremism

Redefining extremism may well be the first step to clamping down on advocacy for Palestine.
Climate in focus
18 Mar, 2024

Climate in focus

IN a welcome order by the Supreme Court, the new government has been tasked with providing a report on actions taken...
Growing rabies concern
18 Mar, 2024

Growing rabies concern

DOG-BITE is an old problem in Pakistan. Amid a surfeit of public health challenges, rabies now seems poised to ...
Provincial share
Updated 17 Mar, 2024

Provincial share

PPP has aptly advised Centre to worry about improving its tax collection rather than eying provinces’ share of tax revenues.
X-communication
17 Mar, 2024

X-communication

IT has now been a month since Pakistani authorities decided that the country must be cut off from one of the...
Stateless humanity
17 Mar, 2024

Stateless humanity

THE endless hostility between India and Pakistan has reduced prisoners to mere statistics. Although the two ...