England Dominant

Yesterday morning a test match got underway at Lord’s between the England and Sri Lanka men’s teams. This post looks at the developments so far (and there have been plenty).

DAY ONE

Yesterday being a work day I missed most of the action. Dhananjaya de Silva won the toss and put England in to bat under cloudless skies and on a pitch that looked flat. At first he looked like getting away with it, assisted by England’s front line batters. Lawrence and Pope’s innings were both over before they had really begun, Duckett scored 40 before playing a loose stroke, and Brook and Smith both also played poor shots. When Smith fell it was 192-5, and 24 runs later Woakes was also out. Root however had been playing beautifully, equalling Alastair Cook’s England record of 33 test centuries. Gus Atkinson now joined him and played brilliantly. The seventh wicket stand was still in progress when I was finally able to tune in, and it kept going merrily on for a while after. Root finally gout, essaying a reverse scoop, for 143 to make it 308-7. Potts and Atkinson continued to bat well, Atkinson reaching a 50 at virtually a run a ball. By the close the stand was worth 50 and England were 358-7, Atkinson 74*, Potts 20*.

DAY TWO

Initially the question was whether Atkinson could score the 26 he needed to complete a century and claim his place on all three Lord’s honours boards (in his debut match, against the West Indies, he had accounted for both the five-wicket innings haul and the ten-wicket match haul). He was on 82 when Australian umpire Paul Reiffel upheld an LBW appeal against him. he reviewed it instantly, and the replay showed it going well down the leg side. That was the only alarm along the way. Soon he was on 95*, and two successive boundaries then saw him to three figures, his maiden FC ton (his previous best was 91 in a Surrey v Lancashire development XI game in 2022) as well as his maiden test ton. He had got there at precisely a run a ball – 103 balls* off 103 balls with 11 fours and four sixes. There was no slogging involved – this was a proper innings, and when it began England had been in some trouble. Potts was eighth out, but Olly Stone, playing his first test match in three years after a horror run of injuries kept Atkinson company and showed that he is far from being a rabbit with the bat. Atkinson was finally out caught behind off Asitha Fernando for 118 to make it 420-9. England were all out for 427, Asitha Fernando 5-102.

Sri Lanka started better than in either innings at Manchester, but when the wickets started to fall they fell in clumps. Both openers played balls into their own stumps, Pathum Nissanka at number three played a really poor shot, straight to Matthew Potts who had been placed there for it, off the bowling of Stone. Mathews and Chandimal each got into the 20s, but then came another clatter of wickets, Mathews being absolutely done by Potts to be clean bowled for 22, Dhanjanaya de Silva going a few balls later for a duck, edging Potts to Brook, and then Chandimal suffered the worst dismissal of the match to date (even in a field as well contested as this it was a definite winner) when he hit a ball from Atkinson straight to Dan Lawrence moments after Pope had placed him there precisely for that shot and that was 87-6. Sri Lanka have recovered somewhat from that nadir. Kamindu Mendis and Milan Rathnayake took the score to 118 before Rathnayake was caught behind off Woakes, and Mendis and Prabath Jayasuriya are still in residence together having taken the score on to 152-7, but they are still in absolutely dire straights, being 275 adrift. Woakes, Stone and Potts each have two wickets, and Atkinson received that gift wicket from Chandimal. While I have been preparing this for publication Bashir has produced an absolute jaffa to bowl his fellow spinner Prabath Jayasuriya to make it 153-8.

PHOTOGRAPHS

My usual sign off…