Lunch England 325 and 35 for 2 (Lawrence 20*) lead Sri Lanka 263 (Dhananjaya 69, Kamindu 64, Stone 3-35, Hull 3-53) by 97 runs
Two early strikes gave Sri Lanka hope as England extended their lead to 97 runs at lunch on the third day of the third Test at The Oval.
Sri Lanka resumed day three on 211 for 5 with a deficit of 114 and, despite three of their players passing fifty, no one went on to get a big score that might have pushed them ahead of England, who were attacking at the start of their second innings.
Earlier, debutant Hull made amends for dropping Dhananjaya de Silva during a gloomy second evening when he had the Sri Lanka skipper caught with his 11th ball of the day, his attempted pull sailing off the top edge to deep backward square.
Dhananjaya had added just five runs to his overnight score and his dismissal preceded a 20-minute stoppage as a short, sharp rain shower swept through South London.
It also sparked a procession of five wickets for 52 runs in 13.3 overs, Hull, Stone and Chris Woakes sharing four of the five wickets to fall with Gus Atkinson off the field nursing a tight quad. Spinner Shoaib Bashir claimed the last wicket.
Woakes struck in the second over after the rain break, his first ball drawing an edge and Joe Root holding on at slip to end Kamindu Mendis’ innings on 64, having added 10 to his overnight score.
Stone put down a yet-to-score Kumara at mid-on to deny Hull a fourth wicket in almost a carbon copy of Hull’s mistake off Bashir when Dhananjaya was on 23 the previous day.
Stone peppered Milan Rathnayake with a couple of short deliveries before his length ball drew a waft outside off stump and Jamie Smith gathered behind the stumps. Bashir then had Asitha Fernando caught by Smith reverse-sweeping to close the innings.
