Jamie Smith's debut Test century propels England into commanding lead

In their first innings, England managed to score 358 runs, with notable contributions from Smith who scored 111 runs and Brook who added 56 runs. Sri Lanka's Asitha was the most successful bowler, taking 4 wickets for 102 runs. As a result, England now lead Sri Lanka by 122 runs after the first innings.

Jamie Smith delivered on his rich promise on the third morning at Emirates Old Trafford, easing through to his maiden Test century in only his fifth innings, as England seized control of the first Test against Sri Lanka.

By the end of their innings, England had extended their overnight lead of 23 to an imposing 122. Though Smith himself fell for 111 to a sharp piece of glovework from Dinesh Chandimal, Mark Wood and Matthew Potts kept the runs flowing with some lusty tail-end biffing, before Potts was last man out in a total of 358.

After resuming on 72 not out overnight, Smith was quickly into his stride against a Sri Lanka attack that lacked a degree of the intensity that they had brought to their endeavours in the first half of England's innings. His first shot in anger was a scorching drive through long-off from Asitha Fernando's opening delivery of the day, and when he added a second in the over through extra cover, it seemed he might be in a hurry to notch his three figures.

And yet, having fallen for 95 against West Indies at Edgbaston in his previous Test innings in July, Smith then throttled back appreciably, settling instead on building a resolute seventh-wicket stand of 66 with Gus Atkinson, whose own score of 20 from 65 was his third such contribution in consecutive England innings.

Once again, England's progress was aided by some questionable Sri Lanka field placings, with Atkinson frequently offered easy singles through the off side to keep the strike rotating, while Smith himself took 27 deliveries to pick off the final 14 runs of his hundred, with the moment coming up with a firm clip off the pads through square leg off Milan Rathnayake.

Moments later, Rathnayake had a moment of his own to savour, a maiden Test wicket - though perhaps not in the manner that he might have envisaged, as Atkinson feathered a leg-side delivery through to Chandimal, whose low take was confirmed by an umpire's review.

The net effect of the two moments was to energise Smith's innings once more, as he skipped down the wicket to whip Prabath Jayasuriya through wide long-on for this third boundary of the morning. But, just when it seemed he was set to cut loose, Jayasuriya fizzed down a faster, wider seaming delivery, and Chandimal did brilliantly to cling onto a fat deflection, standing up to the stumps.

Into the breach stepped Wood, with full licence to swing in his Bazball-approved manner. Sri Lanka took the new ball as soon as it was available, which arguably backfired as Wood thumped the first two deliveries of Asitha's comeback over through the off-side for four. Jayasuriya was then flat-batted through the covers for another four, before Wood launched Asitha high over midwicket for an exceptional one-handed catch from a spectator in the crowd, albeit with a bit of spillage from the pint in his other.

Asitha ended his fun in the same over, bowling Wood for 22 from 13 to land his fourth wicket of the innings, but Potts kept the crowd entertained with a cameo of his own, his 17 from 23 featuring one excellently picked-up ramp for four over the keeper's head before he holed out to square leg.