By Lawrence White
LONDON - England skittled Sri Lanka out for 263 at the Oval on Sunday to claim a first innings lead of 62 on day three, as they seek a clean sweep of summer test victories for the first time since 2004.
It has been a test match plagued by rain and bad light and Sunday was to be no exception as a brief shower stopped play after just four overs.
England nonetheless soon disposed of both Dhananjaya de Silva and Kamindu Mendis, who had combined for a century partnership on Saturday to rescue Sri Lanka from an early collapse and represented the visitors' best hopes of matching England's 325.
England's latest surprise test selection, the 6'7" left arm seamer Josh Hull, struck in the first short passage of play as Sri Lanka's captain de Silva hooked him into the hands of Shoaib Bashir. He then took the third wicket of his fledgling test career, trapping Vishwa Fernando lbw.
Chris Woakes between those two wickets had seized the prize scalp of Mendis, Sri Lanka's best batsman of the series, with a fine ball that seamed away from him and found the edge.
Both sides have conspired to give the match a slightly ramshackle feel with a series of reckless shots and fielding errors, and Olly Stone was the latest culprit as he dropped a straightforward catch in the deep to deny Hull a fourth wicket.
{{/usCountry}}Both sides have conspired to give the match a slightly ramshackle feel with a series of reckless shots and fielding errors, and Olly Stone was the latest culprit as he dropped a straightforward catch in the deep to deny Hull a fourth wicket.
{{/usCountry}}Stone soon redeemed himself, removing the dangerous tail-end hitter Milan Rathnayake who swatted loosely at a lifter and was caught by wicketkeeper Jamie Smith.
England managed to end Sri Lanka's first innings briskly despite being a bowler down, Gus Atkinson not appearing due to reported muscle tightness.
Spinner Bashir claimed the last wicket as Asitha Fernando was caught by Smith, the Sri Lankan number 11 reverse sweeping after a few lusty slogs to leave the visitors with a deficit as they try to avoid a 3-0 whitewash in the series.
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