[ad_1]
Sri Lanka’s only previous visit to The Oval, in 1998, produced one of their greatest Test victories, when Muttiah Muralitharan took 16 wickets in the match.
This was an abysmal return, a scruffy end-of-tour performance from a side that have already lost the series. They packed their side with four frontline seamers, yet rarely put the ball in the right place and were often sloppy in the field.
If Sri Lanka were bad, the initial delay for bad light was borderline farcical and reignited the debate about the hesitancy to play Test cricket in gloomy conditions. In the 80 minutes possible in the morning session, England scored at almost a run a ball, so it was hard to make a case the batters were compromised in any way.
The murk and mizzle kept the players off for almost three hours, though the break did little to stall England’s momentum. Duckett was flying and Pope eased into his slipstream.
The ovation when Pope reached his hundred was filled with warmth from a crowd understanding of the scrutiny the Surrey man has been subjected to.
It was another period when the batters looked entirely comfortable, and the joy turned to boos when, shortly after, the players were led off for a second and final time.
Source link
