Tea England 194 for 3 (Duckett 86, Pope 84*) vs Sri Lanka
While Dan Lawrence failed to stake his claim for the opening spot longer term with another poor innings in the absence of the injured Zak Crawley, Pope defied his own lacklustre form to pick up where Duckett left off when he fell in the middle session after a commanding knock of 86 from just 79 balls.
Joe Root was the other wicket to fall during the afternoon, facing 48 balls for his 13, but when tea was taken at 5.10pm local time, Pope had scored an unbeaten 84 off 85, having managed just 6, 6, 1 and 17 previously in this series while deputising for injured captain Ben Stokes.
The match was halted for bad light and with the lightest drizzle hanging in the air at 12.20pm after 15 overs. The skies darkened appreciably and there was a light rain shower but for the majority of the two hours and 50 minutes that the players remained off the field – which also comprised the lunch break – conditions didn’t appear vastly different to when play began.
They returned to the field at 3.10pm, and the batters made up for lost time, Duckett continuing at a run-a-ball. His slightly off-target ramp off Lahiru Kumara bounced just inside the boundary rope at deep third before disappearing into the crowd rather than clearing fine leg as he apparently intended, but no matter for England. At the other end, Pope looked well set too, thumping Kumara through midwicket with beautiful timing moments later.
Duckett continued to toy with Kumara, nailing his next attempt at a ramp shot over the fine-leg fence and guiding a bouncer over deep third for another maximum in the same over.
He survived an appeal for lbw two balls later on umpire’s call after Kumara struck him high on the back thigh, but the shot that had been so productive for him – and entertaining to a three-quarters-full Kia Oval – proved to be his undoing as Duckett tried to scoop a slower delivery from Milan Rathnayake only for wicketkeeper Dinesh Chandimal to pouch a simple catch.
Pope stepped up, top-edging Kumara over the keeper’s head for six, followed immediately by four through backward point to raise his fifty from 58 balls.
After a relatively quiet period which yielded just four runs in as many overs and coincided with the introduction of Angelo Mathews, Pope broke through again, driving Mathews through the covers for four and chancing another boundary between slip and gully with his heart in his mouth for a moment before the gap was pierced.
Root was caught at fine leg by Vishwa Fernando to give Kumara his second wicket but England remained in total control.
The day began with Sri Lanka trying to make good on Dhananjaya de Silva calling correctly at the toss for the third game running. After a perilous twin flashes at Asitha Fernando deliveries outside off stump, and a fortuitous inside edge off Asitha which travelled all the way to the fine leg boundary, Duckett was assertive, a clip off his toes through square leg off Vishwa much more assured.
Lawrence, meanwhile, was yet to score after facing 10 balls in five overs and finally made it off the mark when he turned Kumara to square leg and ran two to ironic cheers from the stands.
Duckett raised the tempo when he despatched Rathnayake for consecutive fours over extra cover but the contrast continued with Lawrence, who dropped his head and spun on his heel in the direction of the changing room even before his mess of a pull shot off Kumara had dropped into the hands of Pathum Nissanka at gully. Lawrence’s 5 off 21 balls came after scores of 30, 34, 9 and 7 in the series.
Pope back-cut a short, wide delivery from Rathnayake for four to get going almost immediately and punished a Kumara short ball for six over deep backward square before Duckett struck two fours in three balls off Rathnayake to move to 48 and brought up his fifty by crashing Vishwa through the covers and running three.
Valkerie Baynes is a general editor, women’s cricket, at ESPNcricinfo
Content Source: www.espncricinfo.com