Ollie Pope’s Century Shines on Rain-Shortened Day as England Dominate Sri Lanka in 3rd Test
Ollie Pope’s brilliant century lighten up the rain-affected first day of the 3rd test between England and Sri Lanka.
Pope maintained his composure in spite of the dark weather and interruptions, scoring his eighth century in the final Test session, with England at 221 for 3, when poor light forced the match to end early.
Key Performances and Match Scorecard
Match Analysis
Naturally, every individual is significant; yet, with England dominating Sri Lanka on the first day of the third Test and having already clinched the series, this was a personal affair.
Pope, filling in for injured captain Ben Stokes in this series, achieved his seventh Test century against as many different opposition teams in a first for the format despite four prior failures. Pope has come under more scrutiny because of that position alone, but Stokes’s knowing nod as he celebrated the milestone from the dressing room balcony said it all—he was acknowledging a defiant innings that was exactly what he wanted.
Shortly after, with Pope undefeated on 103 from just 103 balls, the umpires again ordered the players off the field due to poor light, to a chorus of jeers and tepid applause from a nearly full Kia Oval. Stumpwork was called shortly before 6.30pm with England at 221 for 3, Harry Brook the other batsman not out on 8. This time, the decision was decisive.
Play had been stopped for almost three hours earlier. It was debatable whether the rain or the darkness of the skies prevented players from playing for an extended period of time, but when they did, Ben Duckett and Pope made sure that it was raining runs. After Dan Lawrence, playing in place of the injured Zak Crawley, failed to establish himself as the opener for the longer term with another subpar innings, the twosome amassed 95 runs for the second wicket.
Before he was dismissed in the afternoon, Duckett struck an impressive 86 off just 79 balls. Joe Root then fell, managing a meager 13 off 48 balls. However, Pope had everything covered following the series’ scores of 6, 6, 1, and 17.
After the first pause, which lasted two hours and fifty minutes during the lunch break, he and Duckett made up lost time.
Duckett’s misplaced ramp off Lahiru Kumara bounced just inside the boundary rope at deep third, but it didn’t matter for England since he vanished into the crowd instead of clearing fine leg as he seemed to have intended. Pope, on the other hand, appeared to be in control as he quickly hit Kumara through midwicket with exquisite timing.
Duckett persisted in playing with Kumara, steering a bouncer over deep third for another maximum in the same over and landing his next try at a ramp shot over the fine-leg fence.
The shot that had been so fruitful for him and entertaining for the crowd proved to be his downfall as Duckett attempted to scoop a slower delivery from Milan Rathnayake only for wicketkeeper Dinesh Chandimal to pouch a simple catch. He survived an appeal for leg before wicket two balls later on the umpire’s call after Kumara struck him high on the back thigh.
Pope came forward and raised his fifty from 58 balls by top-edging Kumara over the keeper’s head for six. He then followed it up with a four through backward point.
Following a comparatively quiet phase that saw just four runs in as many overs and corresponded with Angelo Mathews’ entrance, Pope struck once more, blasting Mathews through the covers for four. Then, with his heart in his teeth, he gambled another border between slide and gully, waiting just long enough for the opening to be breached.
Vishwa Fernando caught Root at fine leg to give Kumara his second wicket, but England still had complete control.
As the third game in a row, Dhananjaya de Silva called the toss accurately, and Sri Lanka tried to capitalize on that to start the day. Following two dangerous deliveries by Asitha Fernando outside off stump and a fortunate inside edge from the same bowler that reached the fine leg boundary, Duckett was more confident, clipping a ball off his toes through square leg off Vishwa.
After facing 10 balls in five overs, Lawrence was still without a run and eventually got off the mark when he turned Kumara to square leg and ran two to satirical applause from the fans.
Duckett picked up the pace when he sent Rathnayake hurtling for consecutive fours over extra cover, but Lawrence was even more of a contrast, lowering his head and spinning on his heel towards the changing room before his clumsy pull shot off Kumara had fallen into the hands of Pathum Nissanka at the gully. Following series scores of 30, 34, 9, and 7, Lawrence scored five runs off of twenty-one balls.
Before Duckett hit two fours in three balls off Rathnayake to move to 48 and reach his fifty by smashing Vishwa through the covers and running three, Pope punished a short ball from Rathnayake for six over deep backward square. Pope had started almost immediately, back-cutting a short, wide delivery from Rathnayake for four.
All things considered, though, it was Pope’s day.
Ben Duckett Defends Umpires’ Bad Light Call Amid Booing at The Oval
Ben Duckett, for one, didn’t feel the need to protest as the umpires hurried players off the field for a second and final time on a weather-blighted day, to the booing of a sizable Oval audience who felt they were being robbed.
Opener for England claims the audience “saw quite a good day’s cricket” despite early close being met with jeers.
On the first day of the third and final Test, he was already out after scoring a blistering 86 in conditions that should have benefited Sri Lanka after they had won the toss. His innings had set the stage for England’s amazing 221 for 3 from just 44.1 overs possible. Duckett said the audience had received their money’s worth considering the final score and narrative, which featured Ollie Pope’s heroic run-a-ball score of 103 not out.
Duckett said, “I think they saw quite a good day’s cricket in the short amount of time there was,” at the end of a day that had seen two stoppages: one shortly before 6pm, which sparked an angry reaction in the stands and ultimately resulted in the decision to call stumps 30 minutes later due to bad light.
“Those are the requirements for living and playing cricket in England. We are the ones playing if it does get really dark and dangerous. It’s really easy to sit there as a supporter and want to see more cricket. I did joke that they could bowl double spinners before lunch if they so desired. There were no prerequisites for that. Both teams used double spin at Old Trafford, but the umpires removed us and we had to follow their regulations when the lights came on and the ball started to nip around.
Conditions that greeted an on-time start did not appear to be significantly different from those that made the earlier interruption seem especially problematic. When the players were off for the first time, the light did go a little bit darker and the lightest mist turned into a little rain shower, but during the afternoon session, which lasted from 3.10 to 5.10 p.m., the light quality was at its best of the day. It was the beginning of the end, with the gloom threatening to return.
Duckett claimed that neither stoppage involved the batters’ consultation; instead, the umpires directed the players off the field. Although he did not express a desire to end the game early—rather, he emphasized the need to “start again” after—he was willing to accept the umpires’ decision.
“I’m sure if it was that same Aussie attack last summer, bowling in those conditions, you’d probably want get off the field,” Duckett added. “There is a noticeable difference when the lights are fully on and the ball begins to swing and nip about a little more. Honestly, it has no bearing on us. In actuality, you no longer have the choice. You must follow the umpires’ judgment if they decide to remove you.”
With spinner Prabath Jayasuriya out of the assault, Sri Lanka had gone for a pace-heavy strategy. However, they glaringly lost a wicket in the early morning hours after persistent rain and cloud cover.
The fast-bowling coach for Sri Lanka, Aaqib Javed, attributed that to his players being carried away by the conditions’ promise and failing to perform as a result.
“What we did wrong is we didn’t get the good areas because there was a lot going on in the mind, ‘oh this is the best day of swing bowling,’ and that chance of taking wickets and sometimes trying to calm them down, excitement levels, it’s sometimes too much,” he said. “I think the bowlers and I have been doing really well with the new ball thus far, but I think today they overexpected.” If your expectations are too high, you will fall short very fast since other bowlers will be staring at each other and exclaiming, “Oh my God, that was the best opportunity, missed it!”
“We have to demonstrate our character tomorrow morning; the bowlers will rest and come up with something better than this. It’s a little disappointing, but there’s still a lot in this game.” With excitement—I would say overexcitement—we made a mistake in the morning.”
Asitha Fernando went wicketless for 58 runs from 14 overs, and Vishwa Fernando finished the day with 0 for 29 from seven overs. Lahiru Kumara gave up 81 runs in 12.1 overs for his two wickets. With 1 for 34, Milan Rathnayake was the other wicket-taker.
