Alastair Cook, Alex Hales miss out on landmarks on first day

England captain Alastair Cook and opening partner Alex Hales missed out on contrasting landmarks on the first day of the second Test against Sri Lanka at the Riverside on Friday.

Cook failed to score the 20 runs he needed to become the first England batsman to reach 10,000 runs in Tests.

And for the second time in as many innings, Hales fell in the 80s when in sight of a maiden Test century.

At tea, England were 200/3, with Joe Root 69 not out and James Vince 22 not out.

Left-handed batsman Cook started his innings patiently after winning the toss in overcast conditions.

However, his lone boundary, a whip pull up on one leg off Suranga Lakmal, was a kind of mirror image of the shot made famous by retired West Indies right-handed opener Gordon Greenidge.

But Lakmal, in for the injured Dushmantha Chameera, dismissed Cook when he had the 31-year-old Essex batsman, playing well away from his body and pushing outside off stump, well caught low to his left by a diving Dimuth Karunaratne at second slip.

Cook’s exit for 15, five runs shy of the 10,000 mark, left England 39 for one.

New batsman Nick Compton accepted in the build-up to this match he was playing for his Test place after his duck in England’s innings and 88-run win in the first of this three-match series at Headingley last week.

Compton, however, was out for nine when he top-edged a hook off Nuwan Pradeep and Lakmal, when it seemed the ball had cleared him, held a brilliant two-handed catch at long leg that left him facing the boundary and just inches from the rope.

Having made 86 at Headingley, he went into the 80s with a straight six off Milinda Siriwardana’s fourth delivery of the day.

Scoreboard (at tea) England 1st Innings: A. Cook c Karunaratne b Lakmal 15, A. Hales c Mathews b Siriwardana 83, N. Compton c Lakmal b Pradeep 9, J. Root (batting) 69, J. Vince (batting) 22. Extras: (lb2) 2. Total: (for 3 wkts, in 61 overs) 200. FoW: 1-39, 2-64, 3-160 Bowling: Eranga 15-2-49-0, Lakmal 13-3-37-1, Pradeep 12-3-38-1, Herath 17-0-55-0, Mathews 2-1-3-0, Siriwardana 2-0-16-1.