England in control but injury concern for Wood – as it happened

England remain favourites to win the first Test against Sri Lanka after day three at Emirates Old Trafford.
The touring side ended the day 204 for six in their second innings, meaning that they will start day four with a narrow lead of 82. Dinesh Chandimal will resume on 20, having retired earlier in the innings to have a scan on his thumb, while Kamindu Mendis is unbeaten on 56.
One big concern for England was the sight of Mark Wood leaving the field late on during his over after pulling up in the middle of his run-up. The ECB said that Wood was being assessed by the physio for an issue with his right thigh, with an update expected in the morning.
Catch up with Elizabeth Ammon’s updates and analysis from day three below.
• Read Mike Atherton’s report
Elizabeth Ammon: That’s stumps. It’s been an interesting — if slightly odd — day of cricket. England took early wickets and looked like they would wrap this match up very quickly, but then two partnerships involving Angelo Mathews recovered the innings for Sri Lankal.
Kamindu Mendis is also proving hard to shift — he’s unbeaten on 56 from 109 balls — and Dinesh Chandimal retired hurt on 10 and went to hospital for an x-ray before it was quickly discovered he hadn’t fractured his thumb, so he’s back out and has added ten to his score.
Sri Lanka end the day on 204 for six, giving them a lead of 82. England clearly very much the favourites here, but the touring side aren’t going down without a fight.
Back tomorrow…
Elizabeth Ammon: Uh oh — Mark Wood pulls up two balls into an over and has to leave the pitch. BBC TMS seem to think it’s his groin but Sky commentators say he flexed his calf.
Joe Root comes on to finish the over and immediately gets a wicket! Milan Rathnayake tries to launch him down the ground but skies it and Ben Duckett takes a catch.
Dinesh Chandimal is coming out to resume his innings and we’ll find out after play what’s going on with Woody.
Elizabeth Ammon: Kamindu Mendis reaches fifty with a pull through mid-wicket — his third Test half-century in only his fourth Test. He seems a very organised batsman.
There’s a bit of depth in the Sri Lanka line-up and the lead is inching up.
Elizabeth Ammon: A massive lbw shout against Milan Rathnayake off the bowling of Chris Woakes! It’s given out, but the review shows that there’s a big inside edge.
The England bowler also gets the umpire to raise his finger for an lbw shout against Kamindu Mendis, but again a Sri Lanka review reveals a small inside edge.
Woakes has got the ball to do some talking now and it’s clouded over so this won’t be easy for Sri lanka in the lead up to stumps.
Elizabeth Ammon: Finally! The breakthrough comes and it’s Chris Woakes who gets Angelo Mathews. The Sri Lanka batsman looks to work through the leg side and gets a leading edge straight to Matthew Potts — he goes for a very good 65 but there’s delight among the England players and supporters that this partnership has been broken.
It’s Milan Rathnayake, who batted superbly in the first innings, who replaces him in the middle. There’s still work for England to do.
Elizabeth Ammon: Two chances have gone down, both off the bowling of Matthew Potts. The first one was a regulation edge from Angelo Mathews, on 65, to Joe Root at slip and he’s grassed it. The second was Kamindu Mendis, on 39, to Gus Atkinson at backward point.
Sri Lanka’s lead is over 40 now. The partnership is worth 72 and this is going to test Ollie Pope’s captaincy.
What does he do?
Elizabeth Ammon: Harry Brook is captaining at the moment because Ollie Pope is off the field (perhaps having a chat with Ben Stokes about what to do). Brook had a chat with Gus Atkinson at the top of his mark, moved a fielder and then Atkinson bowled a horrible leg-side delivery.
Elizabeth Ammon: There is some good news for Sri Lanka — Dinesh Chandimal has not fractured his thumb so will be able to bat again.
Presumably with quite a lot of ibuprofen.
Elizabeth Ammon: Well this is an odd one — a review for lbw against Kamindu Mendis off the bowling Shoaib Bashir, but it is ruled a no-ball because Jamie Smith’s gloves were in front of the line. I’ve never seen that before.
The England wicketkeeper will be relieved though, because it was umpire’s call and given not out on the field.
England keep the review because essentially it doesn’t take place if it’s a no-ball.
Elizabeth Ammon: Angelo Mathews has his 42nd Test-match fifty. This is his 110th Test and it must not be forgotten quite how good he can be. Remember that match-winning 160 at Headingley in 2014? He also averages 45 in Test cricket.
Elizabeth Ammon: For tea we have been given little cricket ball cakes. You wouldn’t want to bowl with these. They’re not very round and they certainly wouldn’t go through the umpire’s ball gauge.
It’s been a very good session for England. Sri Lanka still trail by 15 and are four down but effectively five because Chandimal is at the hospital getting an X-ray. The sun is out at Old Trafford – a first for this match.
Elizabeth Ammon: De Silva has gone cheaply via a delivery from Matthew Potts that was back of a length and kept low. He was going for a pull shot but gets hit on the pad, he reviewed it but replays showed three red lights and that’s him trundling back to the pavilion.
Angelo Mathews is playing something of a lone hand here.
Elizabeth Ammon: Jonny Bairstow is out leg-before for 57 to the Sussex spinner Jack Carson. He was dropped on 50 by Ollie Robinson, who has gone wicketless at Scarborough so far.
Elizabeth Ammon: Oh dear, this was turning into a very useful partnership but Dinesh Chandimal is going off. It looks like he’s fractured his thumb and is in a lot of pain. Will be interesting to see who keeps wicket then. The captain Dhananjaya de Silva has to come out to join Mathews. It was a Wood bumper on the bottom hand and a nasty blow.
Meanwhile, at Scarborough, Jonny Bairstow is playing his first County Championship match since early 2023 and is 49 not out for Yorkshire, who are hosting Sussex. He’ll probably get a big one — he has something of a point to prove.
Elizabeth Ammon: Mark Wood’s first ball gets a wicket – he hits back of a length and Karunaratne prods it to Harry Brook at slip having looked pretty good for his 27. The former England spinner Vic Marks is sitting next to me and five minutes ago said: “Get Wood on, that’ll get things moving.”
He wasn’t wrong.
Elizabeth Ammon: We’re back after lunch and England have burned a review. Angelo Mathews was struck on the pads by one that nips back in from Chris Woakes. Pope reviews the not out decision but it’s way too high and missing everything. Not a great review.
As more and more T20 franchise competitions pop up around the world hoping to lure the world’s best to their shores, it is no surprise that there is a focus on Test cricket’s place in the crowded calendar.
To address the issue, the ICC has set up a plan, which was suggested by Cricket Australia, to ensure that players are sufficiently remunerated for playing Test matches for their country. Read Elizabeth Ammon’s full story here.
With his fantastic 111 this morning, Jamie Smith has become the youngest England men’s wicketkeeper in history to score a Test hundred, beating his captain Ollie Pope in the process. How many more will we see from the Surrey man?
Elizabeth Ammon: And another one goes down – Kusal Mendis hasn’t moved his feet to play a forward defensive and edged behind without scoring. A lovely delivery by Gus Atkinson with a scrambled seam, taken smartly by Jamie Smith down to his right.
It’s a long way back from here for the tourists.
Elizabeth Ammon: Things are shifting on! It takes just three balls for Chris Woakes to get rid of Nishan Madushka – he’s left one which has straightened and clattered in to the top of off stump. There are two types of leave…
Elizabeth Ammon: Matthew Potts is dismissed for 17, and England are all out for 358 with a lead of 122. Lunch is at 1.15pm so Sri Lanka will have to bat for ten minutes before they get fed.
Elizabeth Ammon: Mark Wood is having a lot of fun. He moves to 21 from 11 with a big pulled six into the party stand – much to the delight of the punters. Cheers went up as one fan took a wonderful one-handed catch – he was almost certainly not going to risk spilling his beer.
Elizabeth Ammon: Jamie Smith’s excellent innings comes to an end, and it’s another wicket for Prabath Jayasuriya. It wasn’t a wonderful delivery, wide outside off and Smith chases it and top edges it to Dinesh Chandimal, who reacts quickly to take a decent catch.
The Old Trafford crowd gives Smith a warm standing ovation – I imagine they are glad to move their bodies, it’s a bit bracing in the stands.
Elizabeth Ammon: Gus Atkinson has gone for 20 with a leg side strangle – the umpires reviewed to make sure he had hit it, and that it had carried all the way into Dinesh Chandimal’s gloves. It was a decent innings that gave good support to Smith at the other end as he chased his century.
That’s Milan Rathnayake’s first Test wicket – he’s having an eventful week after his heroics with the bat on Wednesday.
Elizabeth Ammon: And there it is – a magnificent maiden century by Jamie Smith. It’s come from 136 balls with seven fours and one six.
In his fourth Test, he has been moved up to bat at six in the absence of Ben Stokes and he’s helped England along to a nice lead here. He has taken to international cricket very comfortably, and this has been a really sensible innings which has combined patience and aggression. One of the things that England like so much about him is that he can adapt to bat with the tail and read the match situation well. The lead is 67 and there’s still some batting to come – both Potts and Wood can get some quick runs.
It looks like we’ll get a full day in today – no rain forecast but Saturday looks less promising.
Elizabeth Ammon: There are still 12 overs to be bowled until the new ball becomes available, and Sri Lanka have enquired as to the suitability of this one. It’s passed through the umpire’s ball gauge without issue, and the visitors will have to make do.
Two of England’s senior batsmen were clean bowled yesterday by deliveries that they really ought to have done better with. Harry Brook, who averages just below 60 in Test cricket, had his off stump shaken by Prabath Jayasuriya, and looked on in disbelief as the ball turned on a deck that had so far given the spinner very little. Could he have stepped on to his back foot to give himself more room?
Earlier in the day, England’s stand-in captain Ollie Pope was castled by Asitha Fernando, but what tweaks should he make to his technique to ensure he is clean bowled less? In his piece from yesterday, Steve James argues there was more to the pair’s dismissals than the quality of the delivery.
Elizabeth Ammon: After the washout of yesterday’s morning session, more overs have been allocated to today’s play. Provided play begins on time at 11am, lunch will be taken at 1.15pm, tea at 4.10pm, with stumps at 6.30pm. As long as no bad weather gets in the way, there are 98 overs to be bowled.
The last two days have been shortened slightly by a mixture of rain and bad light, but with sunnier conditions expected later, that should not be a problem today.
Standing at a squat 5ft 6in, Asitha Fernando does not look like your typical fast bowler. He grew up in a remote part of Sri Lanka with little access to cricketing facilities, and developed the wherewithal that he displayed on Thursday at Old Trafford while helping his father fish on rough seas.
In his report from day two, Simon Wilde explains Fernando’s rather unorthodox rise to stardom, and the quirky company he finds himself in.
Thursday was one of the more competitive days of Test cricket we’ve seen this summer, with both England and Sri Lanka showing their qualities in the two sessions. Asitha Fernando was the pick of the bowlers – his bustling energy kept England on their toes as they lost three wickets in the opening hour of their innings. Harry Brook and Jamie Smith hit back to help England in to the lead as day three begins.
Read Mike Atherton’s report on the day’s play here.