England moved towards victory in the second test against Sri Lanka whose batsmen showed sufficient resolve on Sunday to push the game into a fourth day if not affect a result that still seems inevitable.
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Sri Lanka frustrated England’s attempts to tie up a series win inside three days in Durham.
The home attack struggled, for the first time, for much of the previous day – and so it was again, even after Anderson quickly got them up and running.
With a ball only four overs old, he wasted little time ending the sixth-wicket stand on 92. Anderson nearly got the wicket of Chandimal when he edged the ball to wicketkkeeper Jonny Bairstow.
The missed chance was unlikely to prove costly in the grand scheme.
England’s formidable attack took just 17 minutes to take the remaining first-innings wickets in the morning.
An edged boundary off Woakes to third man saw the 26-year-old Chandimal to a 172-ball hundred including 11 fours.
Speaking before the first Test at Headingley, Cook – who has hit an England-record 28 Test centuries, including one on debut against India in Nagpur in 2006 – said: “It would mean a lot [to score 10,000 runs]”. He has taken six wickets in this match so far and 16 in this series.
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Chandimal was 54 not out overnight and Milinda Siriwardana 35 not out after Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews (80) and Kaushal Silva (60) initially kept England at bay.
