Pathum Nissanka, Fast Bowlers Lead Sri Lanka to Memorable Victory Over England in the 3rd Test
Sri Lanka ended on a high note, defeating England by eight wickets in four days thanks to a composed century from Pathum Nissanka and an outstanding display of fast bowling at The Oval in London, even though they were trailing 2-0 in the series.
In front of a chilly 9,860 spectators, Sri Lanka easily defeated the target of 219 thanks to Nissanka’s undefeated 127 off 124 balls. With this triumph, Sri Lanka won their first Test match in England since 2014.
Key Performances and Match Results
Sri Lanka 263 (Dhananjaya 69, Kamindu 64, Nissanka 64) and 219 for 2 (Nissanka 127*) beat England 325 (Pope 154, Duckett 86) and 156 (Smith 67, Kumara 4-21, Vishwa 3-40) by 8 wickets.
“Too soon!” That was the atmosphere on the oval field, which felt like it was only yesterday that it had played host to a sold-out Men’s Hundred eliminator tie in the gorgeous summer dusk, with T-shirts, shorts, and sunglasses donning the stands.
However, the sentiment among those wearing all-white was more along the lines of “Finally!” when 9,860 people dug through their closets for better fitting clothes and showed up on a chilly Monday morning to watch Sri Lanka overcome a target of 219 and score a consoling victory over England.
For the tourists, it had all finally clicked, even though it was too late and they were behind 2-0. Though Pathum Nissanka’s composed century secured victory in four days and may have solidified his spot in Sri Lanka’s top order after two years in the wilderness, the series’ final score of 3-1 didn’t matter to him.
After winning their first Test match in England since 2014, Sri Lanka needed 25.3 overs on the fourth day to accomplish their feat, which earned the fans a 50% refund on their tickets. The visitors came back on 94 for 1, needing another 125. Nissanka led his team home by eight wickets with an undefeated 127 off 124 balls, building on his 64 in the previous innings.
A sense of relief also permeated the air as this match came to an end for the England team, who had let a lot of runs slip in the second innings and looked very weak on the final morning, taking just one of the nine wickets they required after Dimuth Karunaratne was dismissed for a cheap price the night before thanks to Chris Woakes’ return catch.
Remember that for England’s white-ball players, “summer” is far from done regardless of the weather. A series against Australia begins on Wednesday, and only the extent of Sri Lanka’s triumph guarantees a break of more than 48 hours between games.
The only other wicket to fall was Gus Atkinson, who was out for the majority of Sri Lanka’s first innings on Sunday due to a thigh injury.
After taking a wonderful catch sprinting in and diving full-stretch to his left to remove Kusal Mendis for a quick 39 in the fifth over of the day, he cautiously jogged halfway to Shoaib Bashir, who made up the remaining ground.
With Angelo Mathews’ assistance, however, Nissanka completed Sri Lanka’s assignment in record time. He reached ninety-five after running three with a fine cut off Atkinson to deep point, and then reached his century by threading a Woakes ball that was too short and too wide behind point.
Though this was only his second encounter in the format since mid-2022, Nissanka celebrated his second century from ten Tests by spreading his arms wide and accepting a hearty bear hug from Mathews.
Nissanka had just mentioned the milestone when he saw Bashir spill his ramp to deep third and then he had clobbered an Olly Stone short ball over the fence at deep backward square two balls later.
After hitting a fake six from Stone’s subsequent over, Nissanka helped Sri Lanka surpass 200 runs. It was only natural that he scored the winning runs by driving Bashir to the boundary at deep backward point. Although the victory was decisive, it came after a tumultuous match that Sri Lanka’s bowlers took command of on the third day.
Following their failure to score a century in ideal circumstances on Friday, their seamers clobbered England for 156 in their second innings, with Lahiru Kumara and Vishwa Fernando being especially efficient against a home team survived only by a booming half-century from Jamie Smith.
England will also need to review their first-inning collapse from 261 for 3 to 325 all out, as much as they would like to forget it. In the meantime, Sri Lanka will cherish this triumph long after the summer’s lads have – at last – left.
Ollie Pope Reflects on England’s Missed Opportunity in Test Summer Finale
England’s interim captain, Ollie Pope, said that his side was disappointed to have lost out on a momentous occasion during the final Test of the English summer, but he refuted claims that their unexpected eight-wicket loss to Sri Lanka at the Kia Oval was the result of complacency. The stand-in captain blames England’s third-day batting for their first loss in six innings.
With a 2-0 lead in this series and momentum from their July 3-0 victory over the West Indies, England looked set to complete a summer sweep for the first time since Michael Vaughan’s team won seven matches in a row in 2004. Ben Duckett and Pope, who amassed his seventh Test century, were cruising to 221 for 3 on a shortened first day of play.
After that, though, England’s batting collapsed badly, going from 7 for 64 in the first innings to 156 in 34 overs in the second, with only Jamie Smith’s counterattacking half-century providing any significant resistance. This meant that a comfortable 62-run lead in the first innings was squandered in the pursuit of a 219 victory goal.
Pathum Nissanka did not lose any time in humiliating England at their own game, capping the chase with a spectacular 127 not out from 124 balls.
“Of course, we want to be a team that wins every game, as everyone does, and it’s been 20 years since we’ve done it,” Pope remarked at the close. There is a tinge of frustration that we haven’t done it because it was an additional source of incentive this week. However, you would have likely accepted it too if someone had predicted that we would win five of the six Test matches at the beginning of the summer.”
The manner of this defeat was reminiscent of other avoidable losses in the Bazball era, most notably at Wellington and Lord’s in 2023, where on both occasions their inability to close out a dominant position was a big factor in their failure to win each series. England had talked about the “refinement” of their aggressive approach in the early Tests of the summer.
Following 13 wickets lost to attacking strokes in the match, including 7 from Pope in his second innings, England were completely overpowered by an outstanding display of left-arm swing bowling from Vishwa Fernando, who bowled consecutive leg before wickets against Joe Root and Harry Brook, taking the life out of England’s middle order.
Brook’s performance came under scrutiny, especially after Michael Vaughan threatened to punish him on the BBC if he persisted in disrespecting the rhythms of batting in Test matches, as he had done in his shady first innings of 19. The second time around, Vishwa had his number, but Pope argued that his failure had nothing to do with a “lack of hunger.”
“With guys like Harry Brook and Joe Root, they will never, ever get bored of batting,” Pope remarked. “I understand that, from the outside, it would appear that way, but these are men who aim to score hundreds of points in each game. there can happen in cricket, so I wouldn’t say there’s a lack of edge or a lack of motivation to go out and put up a big score, but it has been a while since we last accomplished it.”
The series ended without consequence, but it did create an awkward situation for England when their debutant Josh Hull (P1 L1) was called up to do the honours alongside his captain. This was similar to the invitation Ben Stokes had extended to Gus Atkinson and Jamie Smith to do the same following their victorious performances in the previous West Indies series. This was Pope’s first loss as interim captain.
That may have been an apology to Hull, whose six wicketless overs in the chase were dismissed at over a run a ball, as Pope was certain about who was to blame for England’s failure.
He responded, “Probably day three.” “After two days, we were clearly ahead of the game and failed to build on a respectable advantage in the first innings. We didn’t do well enough with the bat yesterday, but Sri Lanka deserves praise. We were just not up to the task, which is possible, and they bowled effectively and made some excellent adjustments in the second innings.
“As a hitting team, we’ve been really well generally this summer, but yesterday we weren’t at our best. We were in charge of the game and it should have been one that we drove forward. However, the primary reason we weren’t happy with the outcome was undoubtedly being bowled out for 140 on a pitch that usually gets better and better as the game progresses.”
Nevertheless, Root’s dismissal for 12 off an inswinging yorker from Vishwa dealt the final blow to England’s ambitions. Since the conclusion of the Lord’s Test, when Root’s two hundreds had put the series out of reach, Sri Lanka had discussed their tactics extensively, and as their interim coach, Sanath Jayasuriya, stated afterwards, their plans had come together flawlessly.
“Some of the things we talked about was to bowl a really good short one against him, and also to bowl great yorkers,” Jayasuriya added. “We performed admirably in both innings, in my opinion. Vishwa attempted that yesterday when the ball began to swing in his direction. For that club, Joe Root is the hitter who turns the tide of the game. Around him, the other batters score runs. It was a significant wicket.
