Sri Lanka were duly shot out for 91 in 36.4 overs to concede a first-innings deficit of 207 – thanks too to Jonny Bairstow’s 140 – and found themselves following on by the close of day two. Anderson came into his own in an evening session under gloomy skies, beating Sri Lanka’s batsmen all ends up with his outswingers and movement off the seam.
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Anderson has never managed to pick more than three wickets in a Test innings, previously, at Headingley.
After assessment and treatment by the England medical team, it was announced that Stokes was unlikely to bowl for the remainder of the day – Yorkshire academy player Jordan Thompson his replacement in the field. Sri Lanka, forced to follow-on, were still 206 runs adrift of making England bat again.
Stuart Broad and James Anderson then wreaked havoc with the ball, taking figures of four for 21 and five for 16 respectively, as the tourists were skittled for just 91.
England had lost three wickets for nine runs, but Bairstow held firm to reach his century in company with Finn – and take on the second new ball after lunch, including 18 runs from one Pradeep over, before skying a catch to deep mid-on off Chameera. In response to England’s first innings total of 298, Sri Lanka batsmen struggled against seamers James Anderson and Stuart Broad on a typically cold and overcast day. Anderson had Sri Lanka in a vice-like grip as he dismissed Dusan Shanaka, the Test debutant and Rangana Herath, narrowly missing a hat-trick.
Asked what it meant to score a Test hundred at his home venue, in front of 13,173 spectators, Bairstow replied: “It’s pretty hard to put into words; it’s not really sunk in”.
“It’s taken us nine years to work out that we’ve been bowling at the wrong ends”.
Adding that the pitch at Headingley for the ongoing Test was very different, Anderson said that he has enjoyed bowling in Leeds with the conditions suiting him.
“So we just thought ‘why not give it a go?”
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Given his family connection, it was a moment that he may yet cherish even more than his emotional first century, at Cape Town five months ago.
