England lose 7 for 64 as SL fight back

Lunch Sri Lanka 0 for 1 trail England 325 (Pope 154, Duckett 86, Rathnayake 3-56, Dhananjaya 2-18) by 324 runs

Sri Lanka’s fast-bowling coach, Aaqib Javed, had suggested his charges would “rest and come up with something better than this” when reflecting on a dire opening day at The Oval.

England were fallible in a collapse of 6 for 35 in 56 balls with poor shot-selection and too often falling into the traps Sri Lanka’s bowlers set for them.

But it was an undeniably improved performance from the visitors, who took more than twice as many wickets in an elongated morning session than they had for the whole 44.1 overs possible on a weather-affected first day as their bowlers employed greater patience and probing lines while making the ball swing.

Harry Brook looked a streaky when he resumed on 8, particularly against anything wide of off stump, and he had added just four more runs before skying Milan Rathnayake to deep point, where Asitha Fernando had eons to wait underneath it before inexplicably letting the ball slip through his hands.

So frustrated was Brook by Sri Lanka’s nagging fifth- and sixth-stump line that at one point he took up his stance a foot outside off stump and gesticulated with outstretched arms that seemed to question their tactic.

The answer came soon enough when his frustration appeared to boil over into a slash at Rathnayake’s outswinger and Kamindu Mendis made no mistake with the sharpest of catches diving to his right at short cover.

Vishwa Fernando entered the attack after about an hour and had Pope given out lbw on 139, roaring “ah yes!” in celebration. Pope reviewed, somewhat speculatively, and managed to overturn his dismissal when the ball was shown to have pitched so narrowly outside leg stump that Pope probably couldn’t believe it himself.

With all the luck heading his way, Pope got an inside edge onto the penultimate ball of the over and it was Vishwa who could scarcely believe his eyes when the ball missed the top of leg stump by a whisker and raced to the boundary.

Vishwa had genuine cause to celebrate a short time later, his first wicket of the match finally coming in the form of Jamie Smith’s flick straight to midwicket.

Dhananjaya brought himself on to great effect when he removed Chris Woakes, who advanced down the pitch and chipped tamely to short cover. And there was to be no reprise of Gus Atkinson’s first-innings century at Lord’s as he holed out to midwicket to give Dhananjaya 2 for 11 from three overs at that point.

Pope had brought up his 150 in just 151 balls but it was Vishwa who ended his wonderful knock with a short ball which Pope hooked to deep square leg. The dismissal brought debutant Josh Hull to the crease but his stay was short-lived after Asitha had him caught at square leg for just 2 and Shoaib Bashir was the last man out, spooning Rathnayake to mid-off for 1.