Dom Bess registered his career best figures of 5/30, as Sri Lanka folded for 135.
English Spinner, Dom Bess, on Thursday claimed a five-wicket haul against Sri Lanka in the first Test-match as England rattled hosts for 135 in their first innings at Galle.
Things didn’t start well for Sri Lanka in the morning as skipper, Dimuth Karunaratne was ruled out of the two-match Test series with a fractured thumb, and then later hosts were sent packing in the first two sessions of the first Test-match.
Dom bess came into the attack in 11th over and the off-spinner didn’t take much time to grab his first scalp as he removed Kusal Perera on the second ball, who top edged a reverse sweep to England captain Joe Root at first slip.
Dom Bess registered his career-best figures of 5 for 30, as England bowled out Sri Lanka for just 135 runs. It was the lowest first innings score at Galle in history with Bess taking just 61 deliveries to complete his five-wicket haul. Only Muttiah Muralitharan has, among spinners, claimed a quicker first-innings five-for in Test cricket in the last 20 years.
Dom bess, who took his second 5-for, was quick to accept he hadn't bowled quite as well as the figures might suggest and said that he got away with few easy strikes.
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"I probably haven't bowled as well as I could have done, and probably got away with one or two, but that's cricket. "It was bizarre. I haven't had a five-for like that before. There are going to be days in India or here where I bowl 10 times better and don't take any wickets.
There might be days I bowl exceptionally well and take 1 for 100. I know I can bowl better,” Dom Bess told reporters.
Dom Bess, 23, praised the combined performance of England's bowlers and admitted he had been the beneficiary of their collective effort.
"Flip it and look how well Broady (Stuart Broad) and Sammy (Sam Curran) bowled at the top. It was exceptional and certainly set the tone early on. I thought Woody( Mark Wood) backed it up with some excellent pace. And it's really nice again to see Leachy [Jack Leach] back in the England shirt. I thought he bowled really nicely and got back into it,”
"As a collective, as a five, we have taken 10 wickets and I'm the fortunate one taking five wickets. But I'm almost trying to push that aside because as a collective we've taken 10 and put ourselves in a really good position in this game,” he said.
Bess also praised the duo of skipper, Joe Root, and Jonny Bairstow who steered England’s innings after losing both the openers in quick succession of time.
"They're quality. Leachy (Jack Leach) and I certainly know how good they are when we bowl at them in the nets. There's a reason they are some of the best in the world. They showed a very calm manner, it set the platform, now it's about going into tomorrow to hopefully build a massive score." said Dom bess.
Two of Bess' wickets came when batsmen attempted reverse-sweeps off his bowling. Niroshan Dickwella had sliced his attempted cut shot to point off a horrid long-hop and was caught by Dominic Sibley.
But perhaps the most fortunate of the five came was Dasun Shanaka’s, who nailed a slog-sweep only to see the ball bounce off at short leg, and lob up to Jos Buttler, the wicketkeeper.
(AFP Inputs)