Joe Root in action (Photo credits: AFP)

Joe Root’s gritty unbeaten 62 guided England to a five-wicket win in the first Test against Sri Lanka at Old Trafford on Saturday.

Set 205 to win, England were faltering at 56/2 when star batsman Root came in shortly before tea on the fourth day.

But together with Yorkshire team-mate Harry Brook (32) he shared a grinding partnership of 49 in 20 overs -- a far cry from England’s ‘Bazball’ approach of recent years -- although a still slow outfield made boundaries hard to come by.

The match, however, was back in the balance when Brook chipped a return catch to left-arm spinner Prabath Jayasuriya, with England 119/4 and still needing a further 86 runs to win.

But Jamie Smith, fresh from a maiden Test century in the first innings, gave Root fine support with a brisk 39 during a stand of 64 as England went 1-0 up in a three-match series after finishing on 205/5.

It was another sign of the 24-year-old wicketkeeper’s admirable big-match temperament, Smith’s performances with the bat in Manchester minimising the impact of regular captain Ben Stokes’s absence with a series-ending torn hamstring.

That Sri Lanka took this match so deep into the fourth day was a testament to their resilience after they had collapsed to 6/3 on the opening morning.

They continued that fight in the field on Saturday before Smith broke the shackles with successive fours off Jayasuriya before later pulling him for six.

By the time he was bowled by Asitha Fernando, England were in sight of victory at 183/5.

Soon afterwards, Root went to fifty before ending the match with just his second four in 128 balls faced when he lofted Jayasuriya down the ground.

Earlier, Sri Lanka’s Kamindu Mendis scored his third hundred in just four Tests as he made 113 in a second-innings total of 326, having come in with his side in trouble at 95/4.

Together with Dinesh Chandimal (79), he shared a seventh-wicket stand of 117 in 30 overs.

The second Test at Lord’s starts on Thursday.

Chief scores:
Sri Lanka 236 (D. de Silva 74, M. Rathnayake 72; C. Woakes 3/32, S. Bashir 3/55) and 326 (K. Mendis 113, D. Chandimal 79; M. Potts 3/47, C. Woakes 3/58) 
England 358 (J. Smith 111, H. Brook 56; Asitha 4/102, P. Jayasuriya 3/85) and 205/5 (J. Root 62 n.o., J. Smith 39)