Cook departs but England dominate

Alistair Cook
5 April 2012

Alastair Cook fell six runs short of his 20th Test century but England were still in position to build a big first-innings lead after the third morning of the second Test against Sri Lanka.

Cook nicked Tillakaratne Dilshan to slip on 94, equalling his best score of the winter in a stoic 278-ball knock. That formed the centrepiece of England's 239 for two at lunch, with the tourists just 36 behind.

Jonathan Trott was 62 not out having been in fluent touch, with Kevin Pietersen on 18no.

England resumed on 154 for one, with Cook on 77 and Trott with 15. Sri Lanka's lead was 121 at the start of play but England soon set about making inroads.

The second over of the morning, bowled by Dhammika Prasad, was taken for seven, including a first boundary of the day by Trott. Rangana Herath was at the other end but he was not looking nearly as dangerous as he did in a man-of-the-match display in Galle. After six overs the deficit had been whittled down to 100.

Trott was beaten once by Prasad, with the ball also evading wicketkeeper Prasanna Jayawardene and racing away for four, but was in confident mood. He reverse swept Suraj Randiv cleanly for another boundary and was busily adding ones and twos to his score.

Cook was progressing much more sedately and had added only seven to his total when Sri Lanka went up for a catch at leg slip off Herath. Umpire Asad Rauf was unmoved and, after a lengthy review, DRS could not prove whether there was any glove involved. The hosts lost their second review just six balls later on an lbw appeal against Trott.

Cook had waited over an hour for his first four of the day but picked up two in five Suranga Lakmal deliveries after Sri Lanka took the new ball. The second brought up England's 200 as Cook moved into the nineties.

The harder ball continued to help the run-rate, Trott passing 50 with two more boundaries, but also accounted for Cook. He was six short of his landmark when Dilshan, who also dismissed captain Andrew Strauss yesterday, found the edge with his first ball of the day.

Pietersen was off the mark quickly and pulled Lakmal contemptuously for his first boundary, while Trott was typically ruthless through the on-side. Pietersen offered one half-chance when the ball looped over short-leg via bat and pad but England reached the interval without further loss.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in