Smith smashes England to perilous lead of 202 against Sri Lanka

LONDON :A stunning display of calculated hitting by one of England's discoveries of the summer, wicketkeeper Jamie Smith, rescued England from the brink on Sunday after Sri Lanka had wrecked their second innings with some fine swing bowling.

Coming in at 69-5, a lead of 131, Smith smashed 67 to extend the gap to 202 by tea as England went in at 140-8, chasing a first clean sweep of home summer tests since 2004.

Surrey's Smith took one Milan Rathnayake over for 20, cutting and driving magnificently to rouse a full house in front of his home crowd at the Oval that had fallen quiet as England wilted under the floodlights.

Scoring 52 off his last 19 balls, Smith finally holed out to midwicket to leave a chaotic test match in the balance as Sri Lanka try to avoid a 3-0 series whitewash.

Ben Duckett (7), Ollie Pope (7), Dan Lawrence (35) and Joe Root (12) earlier all fell swinging, sacrificed at the altar of the relentlessly aggressive philosophy that has brought England so much success in recent years while antagonising their more traditionally-minded fans.

As much as England played some loose shots, Sri Lanka bowled well, finding movement through the air after lunch.

Vishwa Fernando took the prize wicket of Root, rapping him on the boot with an in-swinger, and then doing the same to Harry Brook. When Chris Woakes (0) edged the impressive Lahiru Kumara moments later, England were thoroughly in the mire at 70-6

The clatter of English wickets was only interrupted by a halt in play as Sri Lanka's wicketkeeper Dinesh Chandimal left the field in significant pain after a diving stop, before Smith launched his remarkable assault.

England will resume with just two tail-end wickets left after tea and a slender lead, also likely to be a