Watch cricket video highlights of Sri Lanka tour of England 2024. Third test between England vs Sri Lanka. Venue of the match will be The Oval.
To raise a century that mattered, Ollie Pope placed his front foot, focused his gaze on the ball, puffed up his cheeks, and cut to the boundary. Naturally, every individual is significant; yet, with England dominating Sri Lanka on the first day of the third Test and having already clinched the series, this was a personal affair. Pope, filling in for injured captain Ben Stokes in this series, achieved his seventh Test century against as many different opposition teams in a first for the format despite four prior failures.
Pope has come under more scrutiny because of that position alone, but Stokes’s knowing nod as he celebrated the milestone from the dressing room balcony said it all—he was acknowledging a defiant innings that was exactly what he wanted. Shortly after, with Pope undefeated on 103 from just 103 balls, the umpires again ordered the players off the field due to poor light, to a chorus of jeers and tepid applause from a nearly packed Kia Oval. Stumpwork was called just before 6.30pm with England at 221 for 3, Harry Brook the other batsman not out on 8.
This time, the decision was decisive. Play had been stopped for almost three hours earlier. It was debatable whether the rain or the darkness of the skies prevented players from playing for an extended period of time, but when they did, Ben Duckett and Pope made sure that it was raining runs. After Dan Lawrence, playing in place of the injured Zak Crawley, failed to establish himself as the opener for the longer term with another subpar innings, the twosome amassed 95 runs for the second wicket.
Before he was dismissed in the afternoon, Duckett struck an impressive 86 off just 79 balls. Joe Root then fell, managing a meager 13 off 48 balls. However, Pope had everything covered following the series’ scores of 6, 6, 1, and 17. After the first pause, which lasted two hours and fifty minutes during the lunch break, he and Duckett made up lost time. Duckett’s misplaced ramp off Lahiru Kumara bounced just inside the boundary rope at deep third.
But it didn’t matter for England since he vanished into the crowd instead of clearing fine leg as he seemed to have meant. Pope, on the other hand, appeared to be in control as he quickly hit Kumara through midwicket with exquisite timing. Duckett persisted in playing with Kumara, steering a bouncer over deep third for another maximum in the same over and landing his next try at a ramp shot over the fine-leg fence.
The shot that had been so fruitful for him and entertaining for the crowd proved to be his downfall as Duckett attempted to scoop a slower delivery from Milan Rathnayake only for wicketkeeper Dinesh Chandimal to pouch a simple catch. He survived an appeal for leg before wicket two balls later on the umpire’s call after Kumara struck him high on the back thigh. Pope came forward and raised his fifty from 58 balls by top-edging Kumara over the keeper’s head for six. He then followed it up with a four through backward point.
Following a comparatively calm phase that saw only four runs in as many overs and corresponded with Angelo Mathews’ entrance, Pope struck once again, blasting Mathews over the covers for four. Then, with his heart in his teeth, he gambled another border between slide and gully, waiting just long enough for the opening to be breached. Vishwa Fernando caught Root at fine leg to give Kumara his second wicket, but England still had complete control.
As the third game in a row, Dhananjaya de Silva called the toss accurately, and Sri Lanka tried to capitalize on it to start the day. Following two dangerous deliveries by Asitha Fernando outside off stump and a fortunate inside edge from the same bowler that reached the fine leg boundary, Duckett was more confident, clipping a ball off his toes through square leg off Vishwa. After facing 10 balls in five overs, Lawrence was still without a run and eventually got off the mark when he turned Kumara to square leg and raced two to satirical applause from the fans.
Duckett picked up the pace when he sent Rathnayake hurtling for consecutive fours over extra cover, but Lawrence was even more of a contrast, lowering his head and spinning on his heel towards the changing room before his clumsy pull shot off Kumara had fallen into the hands of Pathum Nissanka at the gully. Following series scores of 30, 34, 9, and 7, Lawrence scored five runs off of twenty-one balls.
Before Duckett hit two fours in three balls off Rathnayake to move to 48 and reach his fifty by smashing Vishwa through the covers and running three, Pope punished a short ball from Rathnayake for six over deep backward square. Pope had started almost immediately, back-cutting a short, wide delivery from Rathnayake for four. All things considered, though, it was Pope’s day.
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