England have become accustomed to steamrollering opponents of late.
But thoughts of another walkover in Manchester were soon scotched as Sri Lanka fought back from a nightmare morning to drag this opening Test into a fourth day.
To make matters worse for the hosts, they also suffered an injury scare late in the day when Mark Wood went off with a thigh issue. The extent of the damage is not yet known.
Wood was electrifying against the West Indies earlier this summer, consistently bowling above 90 miles per hour and causing chaos.
It was part of the reason why across the three Tests in that series the Windies never managed to score 200 in their second innings.
Two of the matches lasted three days and the other just four. The 3-0 series scoreline was emphatic. But even that didn’t tell the full story of England’s dominance.
More of the same was expected against an undercooked Sri Lanka who had been routed by England Lions in their sole warm-up game the previous week.
Despite showing fight on the first day here to post a total of 236 having been reduced to 113 for 7, Sri Lanka looked cooked when after a poor morning with the ball, they limped into lunch on 10 for 2 in their second innings having failed to successfully negotiate a tricky 15-minute mini-session before the interval.
Jamie Smith, England’s latest batting superstar, was still fresh from securing his maiden Test hundred. It was a knock that helped the hosts extend their overnight lead of 23 to 122.
At lunch, talk was about when, not if, this match would be over on the third day. Ticket-holders for day four were bemoaning their bad luck or lack of foresight – on social media.
But the dramatic collapse never materialised as Sri Lanka, bolstered by a doughty 65 from veteran Angelo Mathews and another half-century from Kamindu Mendis, dug in and scrapped their way to an 82-run lead by the end of the day.
They may be six wickets down and still look destined to lose, but this was an impressive show of fight from a team who have overcome their lack of preparation to show England that they will not be bullied over the course of this three-match series.
England, missing injured captain Ben Stokes, were guilty of letting the game drift as the day wore on. Ollie Pope, leading the side for this series, is probably now realising how hard the job actually is.
The hosts were also careless, dropping both Mathews and Kamindu off the luckless Matt Potts.
Chris Woakes, whose dismissal of Nishan Madushka in the first over of the innings had set England on the charge, was also frustrated in the evening when he was denied the wickets of Milan Rathnayake on two and Kamindu on 48 after the Sri Lankans both successfully reviewed lbw decisions against themselves.
By stumps Kamindu was joined by Dinesh Chandimal, who had retired hurt during the afternoon session after being struck on the thumb by Wood. That Chandimal managed to get back out there was impressive but after an X-ray at a local hospital showed no fracture, he was cleared to resume his innings.
Yet Wood himself became the centre of an injury scare 17 minutes before the close when he walked off two balls into his 11th over. The fast bowler’s injury history will leave many fearing the worst.
Wood had earlier strengthened his team’s position when he took the wicket of Dimuth Karunaratne with his first ball of the day to leave the tourists 52 for 3.
By tea, Dhananjaya De Silva had also departed, trapped lbw by Potts, as Sri Lanka went into the interval on 107 for 4, still 15 runs behind.
Mathews brought up his half-century in 86 balls early in the final session. And his 78-run stand with Kamindu not only took his side into the lead but had England tearing their collective hair out, especially after those two drops, Root at slip sparing Mathews and Gus Atkinson doing the same to Kamindu at backward point.
Two wickets late in the day, Woakes finally snaring Mathews and Root dismissing Rathnayake in the over he completed after Wood went off, put a more positive sheen on the session for England.
They will expect to wrap this Sri Lankan innings up quickly on the fourth morning and chase down whatever their target is with ease.
Yet it would be foolish to think too far ahead against a Sri Lankan team who have steadfastly refused to roll over in this contest.
As the great Kumar Sangakkara said on Sky Sports at the close: “The character showed by this side throughout these three days has been excellent. A lot of positives and things to improve on.”
If they can improve, we may have a series on our hands.
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