Key events
WICKET! Smith c Fernando b Rathnayake 33 (England 192-5)
Edged, and gone! That’s a big wicket for Sri Lanka, with Smith getting into his groove in the middle, although he had swung and missed earlier in the over. It was a good length delivery, just outside off, and Smith obliged with a thin edge through to the wicketkeeper.
48th over: England 187-4 (Root 78, Smith 17): Root finishes the over with a flourish, leaning back into his crease and crashing a shot through the covers for four.
47th over: England 182-4 (Root 73, Smith 17): Root plays a straight drive straight down the ground. The ball clips the bowler, Rathnayake, on the boot but keeps going to the boundary. Dhananjaya de Silva gives chase but stumbles as he retrieves the ball. His slide was ill-judged, with De Silva’s left knee digging into the turf, a la Simon Jones in 2002. De Silva gets up and saves the boundary but you can see that hurt. Sri Lanka’s captain is grimacing. The last
46th over: England 177-4 (Root 71, Smith 14): A maiden passes without note.
An email from Adrian Goldman: “It seems to me that this is the corollary of the rule that you can’t be caught out off your pads: a deflection that comes off your body isn’t out unless it hit your bat first. This creates a pleasing symmetry in the rules”
45th over: England 177-4 (Root 71, Smith 14) Root nicks off the last ball of the over through gulley! A thick outside edge that just evades two catchers.
Time for me to hand over to Michael Butler. Thanks for your company and thoughts on everything from Oasis to Babycham.
44th over: England 169-4 (Root 63, Smith 14) Smith waits, again – five dots – and then helps himself to another fut for four off Jayasuriya. It will be so interesting to see if he can play this well against the Indians or the Aussies.
43rd over: England 165-4 (Root 63, Smith 10) There seems to be a rule of thumb today: almost every bowling change brings a wicket, unless the man coming on is Milan Rathnayake. This is his second over of a new spell and he nearly gets through Root’s defences, only to see a Harrow drive dribble away for four.
42nd over: England 161-4 (Root 59, Smith 10) Jamie Smith, England’s second-best batter this summer, has been waiting for the bad ball. And waiting … until now, when Jayasuriya drops short for once and gets cut for four, in no uncertain terms.
41st over: England 156-4 (Root 58, Smith 6) Joe Root’s Test average this summer is now in the 90s. Broad makes the point that he is always looking to improve, tweaking his technique. “He’ll say ‘I’ve found something’ and then he always makes runs.”
40th over: England 155-4 (Root 57, Smith 6) Three more for Root as he clips Jayasuriya into the on side.
39th over: England 155-4 (Root 54, Smith 6) Root’s fifty came off 84 balls. It wasn’t flawless, but it was impressively fluent. To celebrate, he punches to cover point for three.
Fifty to Root!
Joe Root clips Rathnayake for two to reach fifty for the 97th time in Tests. A third of those (32) have led to a hundred, and this feels like it could be the 33rd. “As a bowler in his team,” says Stuart Broad, “I loved having him there.”
Drinks: SL on top
38th over: England 147-4 (Root 49, Smith 6) Another over, another single, as the Only Ones so nearly sang. And that’s drinks, with Sri Lanka still on top. After seeing off the dangerous Brook, they need just one more wicket to get down to the bowlers. But Joe Root, who made a hundred-odd for once out in Manchester, is halfway to doing it again in London.
37th over: England 146-4 (Root 48, Smith 6) Another good over as Fernando too goes for just a single. Jamie Smith, who can be so commanding for a beginner, has started in his sedate mode – six off 18 balls, and four of those runs rather streaky.
Meanwhile David Acaster is picking up on my aside about the inside edge that mysteriously saves you from LBW. “I always assumed this was pragmatism,” he says. “In the days of good old analogue umpires they could tell if it was hitting the stumps if it missed the bat, but if there was an edge then the decision was much more difficult, maybe impossible. So A Decision Was Made – any bat in it and it’s not out.”
36th over: England 145-4 (Root 47, Smith 6) Just a single off Jayasuriya. We’re back to proper Test creekit.
“They’ve been rattling on about padel on TMS,” says Hamish Kuzminski. “Don’t know what the fuss is about. We were playing this at school in the blimmin’ 70s, for heaven’s sake. King Edward’s Five Ways in Brum, for completeness. I imagine my literally old schoolmates are equally amused, or puzzled.”
35th over: England 144-4 (Root 46, Smith 6) Root, facing Fernando, resumes his audition for the MCC Coaching Book with an impeccable swivel-pull.
34th over: England 138-4 (Root 41, Smith 5) Root clips Jayasuriya for two, but the rest of the over is spot-on.
“Just sharpening my quill,” says Pete Salmon. “is it time for the Ollie Pope Discussion yet? One more failure and we go there, or end of series? Perhaps an OBO klaxon so we can all start to pile in for or against? Do keep us posted!” Ha. Funnily enough, I suspect he’ll be insulated by the captaincy. These low scores will be attributed to that. And perhaps to the absence of Crawley, who often puts England in the driving seat before Pope appears.
33rd over: England 136-4 (Root 39, Smith 5) After nabbing Brook as well as Pope, Fernando is on fire. He touches 88mph, draws Smith into a thick-edged drive that goes for a jammy four, and then has an LBW shout that is thwarted only by an inside edge. Such a strange rule, that – giving gthe batter a reward for a false shot.
“There may not be any room for Oasis chat,” says Mark Lewis, “but pleasantly surprised to see The Wurzels mentioned on the OBO (finally). One of Adge Cutler’s finest ditties (Drink Up Thy Zyder) is the adopted anthem of my beloved Bristol City. Got me thinking of former player Arthur Milton. The last surviving member of the exclusive club of men who have played Test cricket and football at the highest level. Some life, that.”
32nd over: England 131-4 (Root 38, Smith 1) Jayasuriya keeps Jamie Smith quiet with his accuracy.
And here’s Brian Withington. “After his product placement of Toast and Babycham (very 70s breakfast),” he says, “perhaps Kim Thonger can check out the site of the prison in Shepton Mallet, which was the nation’s oldest before it was shut in 2013? Never know when that might need to be pressed back into service – indeed, one or two of these England batters might benefit from a short break at His Majesty’s Pleasure.”
31st over: England 130-4 (Root 38, Smith 1) Yet again, a bowling change made the difference. Kumara got his hard-earned breather and gave way to Asitha Fernando, who went very full and angled the ball back in, using the slope. So Harry Brook, as he has tended to since his early blaze of glory, gets in and then gets out.
WICKET! Brook LBW b Fernando 33 (England 130-4)
This is a big one. Brook reviews immediately, but it’s umpire’s call, so he has to go.
30th over: England 128-3 (Root 37, Brook 32) Root sweeps Jayasuriya for four, magisterially, just as he did when they first met this morning. At the end of the over Root and Brook have a chat that leaves them both chuckling.
29th over: England 124-3 (Root 33, Brook 32) For once, de Silva gets a bowling change wrong – by not making it. He keeps Kumara on for his 11th over in the last 23, and Brook makes him pay with a rasping pull and a classy late cut, both for four. He’s almost caught up with Root, who has been out there for nine overs longer.
28th over: England 115-3 (Root 32, Brook 24) Dhananjaya de Silva decides it’s time for some spin after all, so Prabath Jayasuriya returns. He bowls an over without a wicket in it, for the first time today, but concedes only a single and gets both batters thinking with his flight.
27th over: England 114-3 (Root 31, Brook 24) Brook, in full flow now, dabs Kumara for two and flicks him for a single. Root adds a flick of his own, and then Kumara, who has been admirable, finds the inside edge of Brook’s bat with the nip-backer.
26th over: England 110-3 (Root 30, Brook 21) It’s seam from both ends, so Sri Lanka’s dismal over rate is not about to improve. Rathnayake persuades Brook to play a semi-false shot, a chip past the bowler that goes for two. Then Brook plays a crunching cover drive for four, as if suddenly remembering how good he is. A deft cut should bring another two, but there’s a misfield so it’s four more. Another cut, for a single this time, and that’s 11 off the over.
25th over: England 99-3 (Root 30, Brook 10) We don’t know what Root had for lunch, but it may have been two cans of Coke. He plays and misses at Kumara, then calls for a sharp single that would have been the downfall of Harry Brook if the throw had hit the stumps. Brook too flirts with fate outside the off stump, before tucking to leg for a more respectable single.
The players are back out there. “Root to me is the key,” says Kumar Sangakkara, who has not only made a Test hundred at Lord’s himself, he’s been the president of MCC too.
Lunch! And it’s de Silva’s morning
24th over: England 97-3 (Root 29, Brook 9) Fernando, who got this party started, brings the morning to a close with a testing over, beating Brook and drying up the flow of runs. The morning belongs to Dhananjaya de Silva, who startled everyone by opting to bowl and then went some way to proving himself right by grabbing three wickets with inspired bowling changes. For England, Ollie Pope flopped for the third time in a row as stand-in captain. Ben Duckett was assured while he lasted and Joe Root has carried on where he left off at Old Trafford, but as the teams tuck into the legendary Lord’s lunch, it will be the Sri Lankans who feel happier.
23rd over: England 97-3 (Root 29, Brook 9) Kumara bothers Root again, with a bouncer this time, hurrying him into a brush of the glove that could easily have brought a wicket. Brook gets a bouncer too and shows the old boy how it’s done, playing a savage pull that rings out like a gunshot and deserves more than the single it gets.
22nd over: England 94-3 (Root 28, Brook 7) Three singles off Fernando, and no more alarms.
The TMS link has come in, from Nick Kai Nielsen in Châtellerault, near Poitiers, and he even shares the recipe. “Overseas link for TMS: https://www.youtube.com/live/7Zk587xyI4o. Method: BBC cricket > Test live (their version of your sterling efforts) > link in sidebar.” Magnificent, thank you.
21st over: England 91-3 (Root 27, Brook 5) Dhananjaya de Silva does like to ring the changes. Lahiru Kamara’s reward for taking that catch is to be brought straight back into the attack, replacing the wicket-taker Jayasuriya. Root spots a half-volley and strokes a cover drive, straight out of the MCC Coaching Book (if it still exists). Ben Stokes strolls round the boundary with his pads on, looking as if he owns the place. His predecessor plays another drive for no runs as the ball thuds into the stumps at the non-striker’s end.
20th over: England 87-3 (Root 23, Brook 5) Harry Brook, facing Rathanayake, is watchful until the last ball, which he eases for four with a back-foot square drive. That was classy.
