England hero Jimmy Anderson carves through Sri Lankan batsmen in first Test onslaught
JIMMY ANDERSON led a rout of a sorry Sri Lankan side at Headingley on Saturday with the third 10-wicket haul of his career to give England the lead in the three Test Investec Series.
Despite the persistent attention of rain which threatened for much of the day – 27 overs were lost yesterday, making just under 83 in the three days – England wrapped up an innings victory at 5.09pm.
The tourists were bowled out for 119, to go with their first-innings effort of 91, and still finished 88 runs short of England’s first-innings total of 298. Anderson took 5-29 yesterday, to add to his 5-16 on the first day, for a match haul of 10-45.
If the ticket sales for the second and third Tests have been a touch on the slow side over the last few weeks, this will have done nothing to speed them up.
On this showing – it was the second-shortest Test match here in Leeds – three days will be all England need to polish this lot off twice more.
Sri Lanka skipper Angelo Mathews conceded that the defeat was “embarrassing” – adding, “Anderson was class and Broad bowled well but one or two of our guys needed to put their hands up. That didn’t happen.”
It was a close call, but probably the right one. Afterwards Bairstow paid tribute to the bowler and the opposition, only one of which deserved it.
“They were unbelievable figures for Jimmy and it was like he had it on a string,” he said. “It is a joy to be behind the stumps when he is bowling like that.”
Looking forward to the second Test, he added: “This is the first game in what is going to be a tough series but we are expecting a similar pitch at Durham.”
It might be tough, but not for England.