Sri Lanka bowlers squander opportunities on overcast day

England’s stand-in Captain Ollie Pope returned to form with a century on his home ground Ben Duckett toyed with Sri Lanka’s bowlers plays scoop shot during his knock of 86

• Let England off the hook again after deciding to field

THE OVAL: For all the team meetings the players have had and the expectations expressed at media conferences, Sri Lanka have not yet learnt their lessons on how to bowl in English conditions.

A perfect example was on the rain-hit opening day of the third and final cricket Test at the Oval, London yesterday where Sri Lanka’s four-man seam attack bowled poorly in perfect overcast bowling conditions. Not for the first time in the series, they allowed England to take the upper hand as they finished the rain-truncated day on 221-3 courtesy an undefeated run-a-ball century (103) from stand-in captain Ollie Pope.

The bowling to say the least was erratic, lacked discipline and consistency in line and length with the bowlers unable to find the right length to keep the ball on top of the stumps. There was plenty of movement and swing in the air but bowling on both sides of the wicket didn’t help. 

Sri Lanka skipper Dhananjaya de Silva was extremely happy when he won his third consecutive toss yesterday under overcast conditions on his 33rd birthday, and took the right decision to bowl first, but he was very badly let down by his bowlers not doing their job properly.

England’s hard hitting opener Ben Duckett capitalised on Sri Lanka’s poor bowling to score a sparkling 86 off 79 balls inclusive of nine fours and two sixes. The left-hander toyed with the bowling so much that he started improvising like a T20 batsman playing the ramp shot for six off Sri Lanka’s quickest bowler Lahiru Kumara. However, it was that same stroke that led to his dismissal when he was looking good for a hundred, scooping one to wicket-keeper Dinesh Chandimal.

The three wickets Sri Lanka were successful in taking was the undoing of the batsmen. David Lawrence continued his poor form when he chipped a Kumara delivery to gully at five to give Sri Lanka their initial breakthrough, but Duckett and Pope pounced on the poor bowling to stitch together a 95-run partnership off 100 balls that saw England canter at 5½ runs an over.

Pope was under some pressure to score runs as Ben Stokes’ stand-in captain made full use of the Lankan bowling to score his seventh Test hundred on his home ground. By doing so he became the first batsman in the history of the game to score 7 Test match hundreds against seven different oppositions. He brought up his century with his 13th four to go with two sixes, but shortly afterwards the umpires stopped play for bad light and that ended a splendid day for England.  

A rain break, in the morning session with England 76-1 after 15 overs gave Sri Lanka an opportunity to think over where they went wrong with their executions, but they continued to bowl inconsistently even after resumption forcing the captain to bring on Angelo Mathews who had bowled only 20 overs in Test match cricket in the past 

seven years.

Vishwa Fernando who was brought in as the fourth seamer in place of spinner Prabath Jayasuriya looked unfit and bowled poorly. Sri Lanka did not bowl to the conditions and England were too good a side to let that go.

The only thing that worked in Sri Lanka’s favour was the strategy they adopted to get the wicket of Joe Root cheaply for 13 when he fell to the short ball top edging a pull to fine leg. Otherwise, the entire day belonged to England who have put themselves in a strong position to get into an impregnable position.