England can build on promising Lord’s Test to win series

Alastair Cook and his men came agonisingly close to winning the first Test with Sri Lanka, after seemingly bowling the visitors all out with the penultimate delivery, before the lbw decision being rightly overturned, resulting in a draw.

Yorkshire trio Joe Root (7/2 to be top England first innings batsman), Garry Ballance (9/2), and Liam Plunkett (4/1 best bowler) all impressed. The former got his first ever international double century (200 not out), with Zimbabwe-born Ballance scoring 104 not out in just his second Test, and all three will literally feel at home in this deciding battle at Headingley.

Plunkett, who was playing in his first England match since 2006 in the longest form of the game, managed two wickets for 116 runs in the first innings. He surprisingly accredits his rejuvenation to England and Yorkshire legendary batsman Geoffrey Boycott, who gave him typically blunt and to-the-point advice, before walking off into the distance and never heard from again by Plunkett.

“I met him when I first signed and he just said ‘don’t think, just bowl’ and walked off. That’s all he said to me and I haven’t spoken to him since. But it makes sense when I think about it now. I bowl best when I don’t think too much about it,” former Durham seamer Plunkett said.

England, who are odds-on for victory at 5/6 in the second match, should be able to build on their promising performance with both the ball and bat to take their series, after losing the Twenty20 and ODI contests with them.

Captain Cook, though, once again was unable to show his full ability, scoring 17 and 28, as he has now gone 22 Test innings without a century.

The Essex opener is aware of this, however. “Leading from the front as a captain, you want to score runs – that’s your job as a batter,” he said.

England head coach Peter Moores, meanwhile, added: “[Cook] would love to have got a score against Sri Lanka but I thought he captained well, and we are talking about a player here who is England’s most successful centurion.