England in control on day three

However, demonstrating the sort of application which had been sorely lacking this summer, Sri Lanka batted for 84 overs at the second attempt – more than they managed in the entire Headingley Test.

Inevitably it was their inspirational captain Angelo Mathews who stood out with 80, but Dinesh Chandimal’s 54 not out and Kaushal Silva’s 60 before he was duffed up by Steven Finn were cause for optimism. The stylish left-hander scored his second Test hundred from 152 balls and he eventually finished the innings unbeaten on 155 as England scored 498 for nine before captain Alastair Cook made a decision to declare.

England’s bowlers could not have had a better platform to launch their attack than Moeen’s 207-ball innings, which was his best in tests and his second century against Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka have finished day three on 309-5 in their second innings against England at Chester-le-Street, Durham.

England are now leading 1-0 in the three-match Test series after winning the first match by an innings and 88 runs at Headingley in Leeds.

Stuart Broad also took three wickets, two coming late on as Sri Lanka’s resistance broke.

He said of England: “They’re probably slightly ahead on the day”.

Lahiru Thirimanne, who began the day at the crease in the first innings, returned to be dismissed for a second time, this time for 13 after falling to a attractive ball from Moeen Ali that drew him into the shot before clipping his stumps.

If Silva’s innings was notable for its watchfulness, Mathews adopted a more aggressive approach. Sri Lanka though did well to exploit Cook’s weakness outside off. Suranga Lakmal, who walked into the playing XI in place of Dushmantha Chameera, pitched one outside off, got it to nip away and forced the England captain to poke at it.

Finn accepted he is struggling for rhythm in his own bowling after only taking one wicket on the day, having Silva caught by Jonny Bairstow after a spell of verbals with the opener.

It had taken England only 3.3 overs under heavy morning cloud cover to take the tourists’ last two first-innings wickets and bowl them out for 101.

Hard-fought competitive Test cricket returned to English shores after an early season absence to provide a timely reminder for Alastair Cook’s side.

The tourists’ evergreen spinner Rangana Herath took some punishment from Moeen in particular as he conceded 116 runs in pursuit of his 300th Test wicket.

At lunch on the third day, Sri Lanka were 58-1 in their second innings.

All of Sri Lanka’s four main bowlers conceded more than 100 runs each, although Pradeep’s return of four for 107 in 33 overs was economical in the circumstances.

Chandimal represented Sri Lanka’s last hope and he kept the scoreboard ticking over to record his 11th half-century, seeing off the new ball late on with Milinda Siriwadana (35) to leave England with work to do on Monday.