Bairstow, Woakes put England in command

The morning got even better for Sri Lanka when Lakmal trapped Joe Root lbw for three – the decision going to the third umpire after Root was originally given not out. He also took the accolade of being the youngest, and only the twelfth player in history to surpass the total.

Jonny Bairstow admitted he was in “a good place” after atoning for one of the low points of his Test career with a century against Sri Lanka at Lord’s. Captain Cook and Jonny Bairstow seemed to be steering the hosts away from trouble after Sri Lanka had reduced them to 84-4 shortly after lunch, but Cook was undone by a beauty from seamer Nuwan Pradeep after reaching a serene 85.

At lunch, England, already 2-0 up in the three-match series, were 384 for seven.

The chemistry between the pair was much less magical in the afternoon when England’s wicketkeeper dropped a sitter off Woakes’s first ball.

In the 27th over, Karunaratne smashed Anderson for three boundaries and brought up the 100-run opening stand in the next over.

Woakes was the best of the bunch for England with ball in hand extracting bounce and his first delivery flicked the edge of Dimuth Karunaratne’s blade but Bairstow, who had earlier made a magnificent, unbeaten 167, grassed the opportunity.

The former glovesman who became a trendsetter with his aggressive stroke-play, added, “He could make that position which has been a bit of a revolving door for England, he could make that his own for a while to come”. That is the way it goes and it is unfortunate that he has put that one down.

Yet having completed a 95-ball fifty, Karunaratne was dismissed when a leg glance was well caught by a diving Bairstow to give under-pressure fast bowler Steven Finn a wicket on his Middlesex home ground.

“At the time you are very frustrated when someone drops a catch, but we know how hard Jonny is working on his ‘keeping”, Woakes said. Mendis, arguably Sri Lanka’s best batsman of the series so far, will be with him on 25.

Sri Lanka, though, fought back after ending the Cook-Hales stand at 56, England losing four wickets for 28 runs once Hales unleashed an ugly swipe in Rangana Herath’s first over and was caught at slip. The innings at Durham helped us a lot with our confidence and we just had to get it into our systems.

Former England captain Michael Vaughan: “It’s level pegging after days one and two”.

Former England batsman Geoffrey Boycott: “We know Bairstow and Jos Buttler are not specialist keepers”.

“England have two world-class batters, but the others have huge questions marks”.

Speaking to cricket.com.au, Gilchrist asserted, “Bairstow’s clearly more settled as a batsman when he’s wicket-keeping and it’s certainly a situation I can relate to. If the selectors took the gloves off him, what might that do to his batting?”