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.
On day two of the third Test at The Oval, England’s bowlers, under the leadership of Olly Stone, undid Sri Lanka’s solid work in an exciting afternoon session. By teatime, Sri Lanka was five down and 183 runs adrift after bowling England out for 325 on a similarly exciting morning when the hosts lost seven wickets for 64. Sri Lanka proceeded to score at an outstanding rate, and Pathum Nissanka’s 51-ball 64 built on a far better effort from the visiting bowlers, who had failed to take advantage of the circumstances on the first day.
To hold them at bay, Stone, who was playing in his first Test match in three years, claimed 2 for 28. Josh Hull, a left-arm seamer, went from being a Test rookie to a superstar in the space of one wicket. After Chris Woakes’s catch at cover had removed Nissanka, he was clearly relieved as he accepted his teammates’ congratulations in a low-key manner. However, just as he was taking up his fielding position on the boundary, a member of the audience approached him to take a photo. And which twentysomething wouldn’t comply with a sly thumbs up?
After Nissanka had run out Dimuth Karunaratne, Woakes was the second player to take a wicket. When Stone called his partner through, a superb straight hit completed the damage, threatening Stone’s arm from short cover. However, Woakes didn’t score until halfway through his fourth over, after he had been forced to bowl four deliveries of offspin, when the umpires decided the light was too dim for the seamers.
In the subsequent over, when the sky cleared and Gus Atkinson was able to complete his run, Woakes also made a comeback, when in his sixth over, he had Harry Brook catch Kusal Mendis at second slip. Following Hull’s removal of Nissanka, Stone struck with his fourth ball, Angelo Mathews, caught by Ollie Pope at gully. Stone then pinned Dinesh Chandimal lbw to leave Sri Lanka 93 for 5. With the first of three stunning drives in one Stone over, Kamindu Mendis took Sri Lanka to 100. At the half, he was 34 not out, and he and Dhananjaya de Silva had an uninterrupted partnership of 49 to spearhead the tourists’ comeback.
Aaqib Javed, the fast-bowling coach, had earlier asked Sri Lanka’s bowlers to “rest and come up with something better than this” after England resumed at 221 for 3. While England was vulnerable in their collapse of 6 for 35 in 56 balls due to poor shot selection and an unfortunate tendency to fall into the traps Sri Lanka’s bowlers set for them, there was no denying that the visitors’ performance had improved as their bowlers showed more patience and used probing lines to make the ball swing.
Pope had increased his impressive score of 103 not out from the previous night to 154, but no other England batsman had reached 20 except Ben Duckett. When Brook returned on 8, he appeared unreliable, especially when he was batting against anything outside off stump. He managed to add just four more runs until he was caught off guard by Milan Rathnayake at deep point, where Asitha Fernando had plenty of time to wait beneath the ball before he mysteriously let it go through his hands.
Brook became so irritated with Sri Lanka’s persistent fifth- and sixth-stump lines that he once positioned himself a foot outside off stump and made gestures with outstretched arms that appeared to challenge their strategy. The answer materialized quickly as he seemed to strike out at Rathnayake’s outswinger in fury. Kamindu produced an excellent catch, diving to his right at short cover to remove Brook for 19. After an hour or so, Vishwa Fernando joined the attack and had Pope declare LBW on 139, yelling “ah yes!” in triumph.
Almost speculatively, Pope reviewed and reversed his dismissal when it was proved that the ball had pitched so barely outside leg stump that Pope himself probably couldn’t believe it. With everything going his way, Pope got an inside edge on the last delivery of the over, and Vishwa could hardly believe his eyes when the ball sped to the boundary and missed the top of leg stump by the narrowest of margins. A little while later, Vishwa had real reason to celebrate when Jamie Smith eventually gave him his first wicket of the game with a flip straight to midwicket.
While Pope had reached his century in just 151 balls, it was Vishwa who brought his fantastic effort to an end with a short ball caught to deep square leg. Dhananjaya responded with his offspin to dismiss Chris Woakes and Gus Atkinson cheaply. Hull came to the crease following Pope’s removal, but his time there was short-lived as Asitha caught him at square leg for just two runs, and Shoaib Bashir was the final man out, spooning Rathnayake to mid-off for one.
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