During the third Day of the first Test between England and Sri Lanka at the Old Trafford Cricket Ground in Manchester, the English wicketkeeper-batter, Jamie Smith held the fort for the home side by scoring his maiden century in the longest format.
Smith’s knock came at a time when England needed it the most. The home side was just a few runs short of Sri Lanka’s first-inning score of 236. Smith came in to show his resilience and paired up with the in-form Harry Brook to build a 62-run partnership.
England’s chances of getting a significant lead were at risk with Harry Brook’s loss. However, Smith showcased his class when he took charge of scoring the runs, pairing up with Chris Woakes, followed by Gus Atkinson to take the game away from the visitors.
He eventually got to his century in 136 balls where he battled the slower conditions with fine disciplined efforts, making him the youngest English wicketkeeper to score a century in Test history. Smith at the age of 24 years and 42 days old, improved on the previous record held by Les Ames who had held the record at the age of 24 years and 63 days old.
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Smith looked to be in fine form and looked set to go for an even bigger knock. But he gave away his wicket to the spinner, Prabath Jayasuriya. The bowler kept it short and Smith aimed to go after it on the backfoot with a cut shot, however, he did not get it right which resulted in a faint edge carried to the keeper.
The English side will nonetheless be pleased by Jamie’s efforts as they will bank on his talent and hope he can be a mainstay in the national side for years to come.
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In the second innings, Sri Lanka have not had an ideal start as they have lost two wickets within the first two overs. Woakes struck on his third delivery which nipped back onto the stumps. Atkinson got the second where Kusal Mendis nicked the delivery way outside off stump, which was taken by Jamie Smith.
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