England wrap up second Test to secure series win in Sri Lanka

Alastair Cook need not be jealous - as if he had such an indecent bone in his body! Joe Root has led England to a fine Test series victory in Sri Lanka, without reaching the heights which they scaled under Cook in India in late 2012, which was a once-in-a-generation triumph.

Since the retirement of the great triumvirate of Muttiah Muralitharan, Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene, other Asian sides have won in Sri Lanka: India made a complete 3-0 sweep here, and even Bangladesh won a rare Test victory abroad. What is special about Root’s team is that they have won here in contrast to Australia and South Africa who were both demolished.

England have been bold, as Root had promised, having rowed back from being reckless in the opening session of this series in Galle. Their three spinners have been just as steady as Sri Lanka’s. They have fielded admirably, as they do when Paul Collingwood is coaching them, and they are manifestly united under Root’s captaincy - now that even the senior players know that none of them is indispensable for England to win.

Yet, it must be recorded, the home side have been nothing like the power which embarrassed Australia and South Africa. The Sri Lankan cricket board has been suspended; the team manager resigned mid-series; they have no fielding coach; their captain, Dinesh Chandimal, hobbled off in the first Test and while his replacement, the pace bowler Suranga Lakmal, has rotated his spinners considerately, he has taken no great interest in field-placings; and Malinda Pushpakumara is no successor yet to Rangana Herath, who retired after the first Test and who took 40 wickets at 14 each against Australia and South Africa.

So the door was unlocked - and by pushing hard together Root’s men have barged it open. He has been lucky too, in winning both the tosses and thus the right to bat first on pitches which have deteriorated, though not too rapidly. It will be a real proof of England’s durability and consistency if they win the third Test, starting on Friday at the SSC ground in Colombo, when batting second. Even their finest wins against India last summer, at Edgbaston and Southampton, came when batting first, their one defeat - at Trent Bridge - when batting second.

A stronger side than Sri Lanka would have exploited the major weakness in this England side: the absence of a number three, when James Vince or Liam Livingstone should have been here to hold the position. Jonny Bairstow is next in line to try, as a specialist batsman, if the SSC is another big turner; if flat, Stuart Broad can be expected to play his first Test of this series in place of Sam Curran who has damaged his right side.

Root, having tossed and turned most of the night, rightly decided to go with his two most accurate finger-spinners - rather than James Anderson with reverse-swing or Ben Stokes with bouncers, or Adil Rashid, who has been erratic in this series even when allowing wrist-spinners their extra latitude. Whoever England’s bowlers were, they had a great ally in scoreboard pressure, as Sri Lanka still needed 75 with three wickets left.

But it was still nervy stuff for the first 20 minutes on day five. The Barmy Army was pumped, the England players outwardly calm only. Fortunately the Sri Lankan overnight batsmen, Niroshan Dickwella and Akila Dananjaya, let England settle by only taking singles: their best chance would have lain in attack, in attempting to hit off the last 75 runs in only 15 overs, say, which would have got them home before the second new ball.

So Sri Lanka’s eighth-wicket pair picked up the singles on offer, but no nerve-jangling boundaries. They added ten more runs before England struck - when their field-placings, at this crisis-point, were strictly conventional ones.

Moeen removed Dickwella and Suranga Lakmal, who had promoted himself, in the same over. Dickwella, who had been scoring rapidly with his sweeps, opted for a drive and thereby illustrated the dangers of the stroke on this lavishly turning pitch. Ben Stokes held it at slip, giving him a couple of catches to go with his run-out of Dimuth Karunaratne, the turning-point of this match, when England were leaking far too many runs with their in-out field.

But for the run-out England would no doubt have taken all 20 wickets with spin, for the first time since the Old Trafford Test of 1956. On that occasion the wickets were not shared equally between Tony Lock (one) and Jim Laker (19).

Lakmal should have hit out: he did not have the defence to keep out Moeen operating from round the wicket and was bowled through the gate. Still 61 to win for the last pair, so it became a contest between Leach and Moeen for the honour of the fifth wicket.

Leach won - probably to Moeen’s pleasure because he has advised the new left-armer so generously. A simple caught-and-bowled gave Leach five for 83, his first five-fer in his third Test. He was more economical too than Moeen, and had broken the back of Sri Lanka’s batting with his three-wicket opening spell.

Sri Lanka’s offspinner Akila Dananjaya also took eight wickets, driving through the surface faster than any other spinner, by means of a suspected action. He will miss the third Test as he has to report for an ICC testing in Brisbane. Leach, having been through the process, had no such blemish on his sterling performance.