Jack Leach's magic arms help England to rare away whitewash

SAM MORSHEAD: Leach, darting in from deep backward square leg, collected and threw in a smooth, easy movement. Kusal Mendis was short of his ground by a couple of feet. In a flash, the momentum of the game swung

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Colombo (fourth day of five): England 336 & 230, Sri Lanka 240 & 284 - England win by 42 runs 

Metaphorically and now quite literally, Jack Leach has taken his second chance in Test cricket with both hands.

The Somerset man, restored to the England side for this trip to Sri Lanka after a difficult summer, has played a pivotal part in the tourists’ series success, claiming 18 wickets with his slow left-arm spin.

On Monday, however, it was Leach’s right hand which propelled his team to victory.

With England stuck in a rut and Kusal Mendis and Roshen Silva slowly but surely edging the hosts towards what at the start of the fourth day appeared a highly unlikely victory, the ambidextrous Leach executed a deadeye run-out which turned the direction of the game.

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Sri Lanka made a good start to their chase on Monday

Mendis, on 86, had batted as well as he had all series and Joe Root and his bowlers seemed totally bereft of ideas when the two Sri Lankans dawdled between the wickets moments after taking their sixth-wicket stand past 100 at the SSC.

Leach, darting in from deep backward square leg, collected and threw in a smooth, easy movement. Mendis was short of his ground by a couple of feet. In a flash, the momentum of the game swung.

Sri Lanka, who at the time needed 143 for the win, fell apart, with Leach finishing with three wickets of his own to go with the run out.

From 184 for five, the home side were reduced to 225 for nine and despite an admirable last-wicket partnership worth 58 between Suranga Lakmal and Malinda Pushpakumara, soon found themselves whitewashed in a three-Test home series for only the third time.

For England, this is a first away clean sweep in series of three matches or more since the early 1960s. Leach has had plenty to do with it.

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The run out of Kusal Mendis changed the direction of the game

England’s spinners had been slow out of the traps at the SSC on Monday, with Moeen Ali in particular struggling to find his most effective length in the first hour of play.

Nightwatchman Lakshan Sandakan fell to Leach, a routine chance gobbled up by Ben Stokes at slip, but Mendis and Silva made sure rot did not set in.

Punishing the many bad balls sent down by England’s out-of-sorts attack and offering their opponents little opportunity to get excited in the field, the two Sri Lanka batsmen methodically set about a sizeable chase.

At lunch, they had taken their team beyond the halfway point and in the first 30 minutes after the interval moved their partnership beyond three figures.

England’s bowlers began to look bedraggled and befuddled, and when Ben Stokes’ stint with the ball failed to offer anything of note beyond a warning from umpire S Ravi for running on the wicket, the balance of power began to shift in favour of the home side.

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Jack Leach was pivotal in England's success

That all changed when Mendis dragged his heels during the first run of an attempted two and was punished by Leach’s excellent throw.

Cue the collapse.

Niroshan Dickwella made 19 before looping a catch to Keaton Jennings at short leg and the England batsman equalled his country’s record for most outfield catches in a Test by holding onto another simple chance, this time off Moeen, to be rid of Dilruwan Perera.

A good use of DRS saw Moeen trap Silva lbw for 65 and, though Malinda Pushpakumara contributed an entertaining, free-spirited cameo worth 42 at the death which briefly might have caused Root to worry, victory was secured when Leach convinced Ravi to lift his finger for an lbw decision against Lakmal. 

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