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Hales and Root set England on strong course
- Updated: May 27, 2016
Tea England 200 for 3 (Root 68*, Vince 22*) v Sri LankaLive scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Both openers missed milestones on the opening day of the second Test at Chester-le-Street but the overall position was healthy for England as they reached 200 for 3 at tea. Alex Hales fell in the 80s for the second time in the series leaving Joe Root to continuing building a substantial first innings with a largely serene innings.
Earlier, Alastair Cook, who decided to bat first, had fallen five runs short of reaching the 10,000 milestone which has been looming since the South Africa series in January while Nick Compton’s lean run was continued by a spectacular catch – the first of two fantastic grabs by Sri Lanka – during a morning session where the bowlers made England work hard on a cold, grey day.
Progress was more fluent during the afternoon session as 117 runs came in 30 overs – perhaps in a desire to keep warm, Sri Lanka’s over-rate was healthy although Rangana Herath’s 16 overs also helped – with Hales, who reached his fifty with a lofted thump off Herath from 102 balls, and Root taking their stand to 96. It was broken the ball after Hales had deposited Milinda Siriwardana for a straight six and went to cut the left-arm spinner, Angelo Mathews springing to his right at slip to hold a stinging catch.
Root’s progress to fifty off 70 balls had been almost effortless following a trademark jaunty start before lunch. A slow outfield denied a few boundaries, plus Mathews’ placing of a deep point for much of the session, but Root kept the score moving freely with deft placement and scampering running. There was a sign of Sri Lanka’s desperation to remove Root when Mathews reviewed an lbw shout off his own bowling that was always too high. James Vince, easing into some classy drives, kept him company until tea as he aimed to settle into Test cricket on …
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