Lunch England 97 for 3 (Root 29*, Brook 9*) vs Sri Lanka
Sri Lanka backed up their determination to bowl by eradicating England’s prime three in placid situations on the primary morning at Lord’s. There have been wickets apiece for Lahiru Kumara, Asitha Fernando and Prabath Jayasuriya as England made a stuttering begin within the sunshine.
England’s new-look opening pair for this sequence produced their third consecutive stand within the 30s, earlier than Dan Lawrence edged behind. The dismissal of Ollie Pope did extra to unsettle the St John’s Wooden regulars, as England’s stand-in captain flapped a brief ball into the leg aspect to path off disconsolately for 1 off 10 balls. Ben Duckett regarded assured in making 40 from 47 balls, solely to reverse-swipe the fourth ball of spin within the match down the throat of deep level to go away the rating 83 for 3.
Dhananjaya de Silva’s determination on the toss brought about quite a lot of raised eyebrows across the floor because it basked in late August sunshine. The Sri Lanka captain spoke of early swing helping his assault, and whereas there was not a lot in the best way of lateral motion they nonetheless picked up two wickets inside the primary hour and had a 3rd 20 minutes earlier than the lunch break. Had Paul Reiffel been extra beneficiant in his interpretation of an lbw attraction towards Joe Root, England would have been in an excellent dicier place.
When Duckett clipped three boundaries from Asitha’s second over of the morning, it appeared as if England had been within the temper to ram residence the purpose about Lord’s being a “search for, not down” floor. However Kumara, introduced into the aspect for Vishwa Fernando, changed Asitha and struck in his first over. Lawrence superior trying to drive on the up solely to tickle via to the keeper, Nishan Madushka, one other change from Previous Trafford, the place Dinesh Chandimal had taken the gloves solely to take a blow on the hand from Mark Wooden.
Pope’s common as Take a look at captain then dipped from 6.00 to 4.33 through one other dismissal that may have made for uncomfortable viewing again within the dressing room, following his poorly conceived reverse-sweep within the first Take a look at. Pope had spoken within the build-up about attempting to separate captaincy duties from the processes required to bat at No. 3; maybe he had been wrongfooted on the toss, having seen Dhananjaya name accurately and anticipating to be put into the sector.
Regardless of the whys and wherefores, there was a lot to interrogate concerning the alternative of shot, as Asitha switched to the Nursery Finish and induced an ungainly pull throughout the road that took the highest edge and ballooned to Pope’s reverse quantity at sq. leg.
Sri Lanka, who haven’t misplaced a Take a look at in London since 1991, had their tails up, with Asitha and Kumara probing for openings whereas Milan Rathnayake stored issues tight on the different finish. Kumara was wholehearted, pushing the velocity gun up in the direction of 90mph, and he may need had a second when bringing one down the slope into Root’s knee roll when the batter was on 11. The bowler bellowed an attraction, likely conscious of the positive margins of umpire’s name: DRS duly had it clipping the highest of leg stump, so Reiffel’s not-out stood.
