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Hales and Bairstow steady stunned England
- Updated: May 19, 2016
Tea England 171 for 5 (Hales 71*, Bairstow 54*) v Sri LankaLive scorecard and ball-by-ball details
A diligent half-century from Alex Hales, coupled with some home-ground know-how from Jonny Bairstow, helped England to regroup with a 88-run stand for the sixth wicket on the first day of the first Test against Sri Lanka, after their ambitions had been dramatically dented by the loss of five wickets for 34 runs either side of the lunch break.
By tea, Hales was unbeaten on 71, his second Test half-century in nine innings and his highest yet, beating the 60 he made against South Africa at Cape Town in January. It had been an innings of intense application, studded with 12 fours, as he battled initially to adapt his hard-handed technique to the overcast conditions before growing in confidence as his innings progressed.
At the other end was Bairstow, who arrived at the crease with England’s innings in crisis at 83 for 5, but responded with the sort of sparky counter-punching that Matt Prior, in his own pomp, had so often provided from No.7. With his confidence glowing following scores of 246 and 198 in his two most recent innings for Yorkshire at Headingley, Bairstow’s 54 not out from 67 balls took the attack back to Sri Lanka, who nevertheless remained firmly in the contest at 171 for 5, thanks to Dasun Shanaka’s sensational debut breakthroughs.
After being put into bat on a morning when bowling first was a no-brainer for both captains, England’s openers were obliged to rein in the extravagant strokeplay that has coloured so much of their cricket in recent months – a situation that might have been tailor-made for Alastair Cook. He began the match needing another 36 runs to reach 10,000 Test runs, and after getting off the mark with a sixth-ball clip for four through midwicket, appeared well set for the long grind until Shanaka’s introduction, in the 18th over of the day, tore up the …
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