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Ollie Pope-led England cricket team is taking on Dhananjaya de Silva's Sri Lanka in the first match of the three-match Test series. Jamie Smith’s stellar 72 helped England reach 259/6 before the the game was prematurely ended due to weather conditions on Day 2 at Old Trafford, on August 22. A dominant English side is currently leading by 23 runs with 4 wickets in hand in 1st innings. Sri Lanka managed to score 236 in the first innings on the backs of half-centuries by Dhananjaya de Silva and Milan Rathnayake. England’s former captain Michael Vaughan spoke about the match and the possible result match. While England seems a clear winner in their conditions, Vaughan still feels Sri Lanka can turn things around.
"I really like the pitch. I think it will keep Sri Lanka interested. It's all about can they get the four wickets quick enough and can they really bat well in that second innings when they are going to be under a huge amount of pressure. If they can ask England to get 200 in the last innings here at Old Trafford when the ball is just gripping, Sri Lanka can cause a shock this week," Vaughan said while reviewing the game on BBC Test Match Special.
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"It all comes down to that opening set because if Jamie Smith gets going, we saw him against the West Indies at Edgbaston, he can crash the ball to all parts, and he can get 60 in the space of 30-40 balls. If he does that, I think that will be Test match towards England. If they can get Jamie Smith early, then the lead is only 50 or 60, Sri Lanka are right in this Test match with the way the pitch is playing," he added.
Vaughan on Bashir
Vaughan said if Sri Lanka can limit England's lead to 80 or 100, they can get themselves a room for comeback. He said they will be facing Bashir a lot and as they have a lot of experience playing spin they can target him and score runs. He instead opined that Mark Wood could derail Sri Lanka’s plans of turning the game around in the second innings, so they ought to be careful against him.
“Sri Lanka are in this game. If they can keep the lead to 80 to 100 and then go and get 300-350, and with that batting lineup they have on this kind of surface, there is not a great deal of pace. They will face a lot of Bashir but they are used to facing off-spin. Alright, he is a tall off-spinner, you don't get too many of those but they are used to facing spin. So they should fancy getting runs against Bashir,” said Vaughan.
"If they can survive that new ball burst from Gus Atkinson, Chris Woakes, Matthew Potts and Mark Wood - Mark Wood now becomes so important on this kind of pitch because he is bowling 95 mph, he is a point of difference, and that's one thing Sri Lanka didn't have today. They didn't have the advantage of throwing the ball to someone who's bowling 95 mph on this kind of surface," Vaughan concluded.
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