Sri Lanka Fight Back with Dhananjaya and Kamindu’s Fifties in 3rd Test Against England
Sri Lanka vs England, 3rd test Day 2 Highlights: On the second day of the third Test match between Sri Lanka and England at The Oval, Dhananjaya de Silva and Kamindu Mendis struck fifty runs apiece to lead the Lankan response.
The pair’s undefeated 118-run combination gave the visitors confidence after they collapsed to 93/5. They ended the day at 211/5, trailing by 114 runs.
Key Performances and Match Scorecard
Sri Lanka 211 for 5 (Dhananjaya 64*, Nissanka 64, Kamindu 54*) trail England 325 (Pope 154, Duckett 86, Rathnayake 3-56, Dhananjaya 2-18) by 114 runs.
Match Analysis
Before another early conclusion due to poor light, England responded with ball following their morning meltdown.
Sri Lanka fell to 93 for 5 as their bowlers produced an incredible comeback to dismiss England for 325 from their overnight 221 for 3, but Dhananjaya and Kamindu put together an unbroken partnership of 118 for the sixth wicket to reduce the margin.
When the players left the field at 5.36 pm, there was still a lot of work to be done, and there was no guarantee that they would return. In fact, the conditions at The Oval were even worse than they were when they left, and after 30 minutes, there was no more play.
When Dhananjaya came back from tea on 16, Kamindu had already overtaken him to reach 64 not out. That came after Josh Hull, making his debut, dropped him on 23 after he let a simple catch from Shoaib Bashir’s bowling to go between his hands and into his chest at mid-on.
Hull’s relief after getting his first Test wicket, the dangerous-looking Pathum Nissanka, for a speedy sixty-four runs thanks to a catch at cover by Chris Woakes was almost as evident as his desire to vanish.
During an exciting afternoon session, where Olly Stone grabbed two wickets and Woakes added another after Nissanka’s miscall and Stone’s straight hit from short cover had dismissed Dimuth Karunaratne, England effectively undid their opponents’ solid work.
Midway through his fourth over, Woakes was forced to bowl four offspin deliveries when the umpires deemed the light to be too poor for the seamers. It was a peculiar situation.
In the subsequent over, when the sky cleared and Gus Atkinson was able to dismiss his entire innings, Woakes also made a comeback, as in his sixth over, he had Kusal Mendis caught by Harry Brook at second slip.
Stone’s fourth delivery was a boundary when Ollie Pope caught Angelo Mathews at gully. Hull then removed Nissanka, and Stone pinned Dinesh Chandimal leg before wicket to put Sri Lanka in serious difficulty.
With the first of three exquisite drives in one Stone over, Kamindu raised Sri Lanka’s score to 100, and by tea, he was undefeated on 34. England had to bowl spin for the entire evening session (17 overs), during which Dhananjaya and Kamindu scored 69 runs, due to poor light.
Aaqib Javed, Sri Lanka’s fast-bowling coach, had earlier asked his bowlers to “rest and come up with something better than this” at stumps on the opening night.
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 increased his brilliant opening-day total of 103 not out to 154, but no England batsman other than Ben Duckett reached 20.
When he came back on at 8, Brook seemed unreliable, especially against anything wide of off stump. He made only four more runs before lofting Milan Rathnayake to deep point, where Asitha Fernando stood for an eternity beneath it before laying it down for no apparent reason.
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. His anger seemed to quickly turn into a slash at Rathnayake’s outswinger, and Kamindu made no mistake, diving to his right at short cover with the sharpest of catches.
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 narrowly outside leg stump that Pope himself probably couldn’t believe it.
Pope, blessed with good fortune, grabbed an inside edge on the last ball of the over. Vishwa was left dumbfounded when the ball skimmed the top of the leg stump and streaked towards the boundary.
A short while later, though, Vishwa had real reason to celebrate when Jamie Smith’s flick straight to midwicket for him his first wicket of the game.
Captain Dhananjaya entered the field and quickly removed Woakes and Atkinson with his offspin. Pope reached his century in just 151 balls, but Vishwa brought his incredible knock to an end with a short ball that was hooked to deep square leg.
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 Bashir was the final man out, spooning Rathnayake to mid-off for one.
Bad Light Disrupts England vs Sri Lanka 3rd Test at The Oval as Chris Woakes Forced to Bowl Spin Mid-Over
The third Test between England and Sri Lanka at the Kia Oval reached absurd new heights on the second afternoon when Chris Woakes was forced to bowl spin midway through an over because the on-field umpires were worried about the worsening conditions. This came after an opening day marked by a protracted delay due to bad light. Disbelief at The Oval when umpires step in mid-over due to cloud cover
Just moments after losing their opening wicket to Olly Stone’s direct drive from the covers that dismissed Dimuth Karunaratne for nine, the incident happened two balls into the seventh over of Sri Lanka’s innings.
Despite the fact that Woakes has averaged a speed of about 80 mph in this Test match, Joel Wilson and Chris Gaffaney declared it too dark for fast bowling when Kusal Mendis entered the field at number three to face his first delivery.
There was a chorus of jeers from the packed Oval crowd and puzzlement in the commentary box over the decision. After Woakes’ first-ball long-hop, which Mendis took to deep midwicket for a single, Michael Atherton said on Sky Sports that “the game’s gone mad” and that “oh, that’s filth” when Woakes’ following delivery pitched three feet outside off stump.
Raising his eyebrows in amusement, Joe Root responded, while Ben Stokes, standing on the England balcony, expressed his incredulity before heading inside the dressing room.
Pathum Nissanka then pulled a third-ball long-hop for four, thus England lost six runs from four balls at the intermission. A few moments later, the cloud cover lifted, adding to the farce, and England’s fastest bowler, Gus Atkinson, was allowed to continue after another light-meter reading.
Ollie Pope, England’s acting captain, had to decide how his team would react to the umpires’ concerns for the third time in as many Test matches.
He had opted to stay at Old Trafford in the dark, bowling 12 straight overs of spin that may have helped Sri Lanka rally from a low point of 113 for 7 to 236. However, at Lord’s, he decided to send his team out early rather than accept the chance of wasting the new ball, a move that drew harsh criticism from Eoin Morgan, the former white-ball captain of England.
Following tea on the second afternoon at The Oval, Pope decided to remain on the field as the light faded once more. In the final session, Bashir, Dan Lawrence, and Joe Root bowled 17 consecutive overs of spin, and Sri Lanka again capitalized through Dhananjaya de Silva and Kamindu Mendis, who put on 118 unbeaten runs for the sixth wicket before the umpires removed the players for good.
Law 2.7.1 states that “it is solely for the umpires together to decide whether either conditions of ground, weather or light, or exceptional circumstances mean that it would be dangerous or unreasonable for play to take place.” This law addresses bad light and other weather-related issues.
But then the legislation says, “Conditions shall not be regarded as either unreasonable or dangerous merely because they are not ideal.”
The disappointing first day of the competition, which saw a nearly three-hour delay from 12.18 pm to 3.10 pm due to a thick layer of cloud cover preventing play from restarting, was followed by the Woakes incident. At 5.54 p.m., play was once more halted, and it was eventually called off just before 6.30 p.m., with just 44.1 of the day’s 90 overs yet to be played.
Ben Duckett, however, justified the decision in a speech at the end of the first day of play, saying that England’s batting, highlighted by Pope’s first century at home and his 86 from 79 balls, had given the supporters value for their money.
“I think they saw quite a good day’s cricket in the short amount of time there was,” Duckett remarked. “Those are the requirements for living and playing cricket in England. It’s rather simple to watch cricket from the sidelines and wish for more matches, but we are the ones who will be playing if the weather turns dangerous and dark.”
