Ollie Pope century lifts the gloom amid bad-light fury at the Oval

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Ollie Pope’s first Test hundred on his home ground lifted the gloom around the Oval and brightened his own summer as England moved into a strong position on a truncated first day of the third Test.
Pope’s seventh Test century was his first score of any significance as stand-in captain, dampened any notion that he might be under pressure at no 3 as England head off soon for winter assignments and provided a fitting Surrey tribute to Graham Thorpe.
On a day of low grey cloud, play was restricted to only 44.1 overs by bad light and rain. The umpires were booed when they took the players off for the final time for bad light just moments after Pope had creamed a four through the covers to reach his century. The floodlights were on full beam and Sri Lanka were not exactly Mitchell Johnson tearing in at the Waca. But rules are rules and off the players went, another body blow dished out to Test cricket, and a few more punters left wondering if they will bother next year.
Pope played superbly although as examinations go this was not the toughest, England scoring at 5 an over playing plenty of fun, inventive shots despite what looked like good bowling conditions. Sri Lanka were lethargic, looking like a team ready for home and bowled poorly, never really testing Pope on his weaknesses and allowing him so much room to cut that he could pick his gaps.
After scores of 6, 6, 1 and 17 in this series his inconsistency was bedevilling him again, he had just not built on his hundred and two fifties against West Indies. This hundred puts a different complexion on things. He now has two in the same home summer for the first time, and is likely to end his three games stint as captain with a 100 percent record. Not bad, and he can slide back into the ranks with a good job done. This was the seventh different team he has scored a hundred against but crucially none against Australia. This one gives him a better chance to break that duck in Australia next year.
Ollie Pope 💯England’s stand-in captain with a hundred on his home turf 🙌 pic.twitter.com/uNiLndlZGI
Ben Stokes applauded Pope’s hundred like a proud dad, standing back and appreciating what Pope had achieved and will think he has grown in stature. He turned to Stokes and Joe Root for advice about how to switch off from captaincy when batting and he looked much calmer at Lord’s last week without making a score which continued here. Perhaps it helped that this was the first innings of the match and he was not walking out after hours in the field trying to fashion wickets.
Do not underestimate the Thorpe factor too. The love and affection held for him flowed freely on Wednesday at the wake in the pavilion after his funeral, attended by a who’s who of Surrey and England cricketers from the past 40 years. Footage of his comeback hundred at the Oval against South Africa in 2004 was played on screen during the rain break. Pope was watching and there at the funeral too. It just had to be a Surrey player who scored the day’s only hundred.
Ben Duckett has Surrey links as well, his father played second-team cricket at the Oval in the 1970s alongside a young Jonathan Agnew. Duckett would have been at Thorpe’s funeral but he was best man at his Dad’s wedding. Instead he missed a great chance to honour Thorpe with a century, but missed out again to sum up a curious summer.
Duckett is in good form but has not capitalised against two of world cricket’s poorer opponents. He has only made one Test hundred at home – against Ireland last summer – which is under par for a player of his quality. Bowlers have pitched fuller and he has nicked off this summer. Sri Lanka were not disciplined enough to pull it off this time, and Duckett seized his chance bringing up a 50 off 48 balls.
Ben Duckett with a reverse scoop 6⃣😍 pic.twitter.com/I5rroOve4p
Moments later the umpires took the players off for bad light, a three-hour delay ensuing. England were batting at over 5 an over at that point, Duckett flying. It was dark, and the artificial light had taken over but it was frustrating to see players go off when batsmen were not hindered by the conditions.
Duckett hit two sixes in four balls on the resumption off Lahiru Kumara, a ramp and an uppercut. It was jaunty, entertaining batting. Marcus Trescothick had asked Duckett this week why he had stopped playing the ramp shot, and so he was eager to prove to the batting coach it was still in his locker. One came off slightly fortunately and another flew for six. But on 86 he mistimed the shot and plopped a catch to the keeper. It was such a waste of a Test hundred and Duckett knew it.
Dan Lawrence departed early, playing a curious shot misjudging the length to be caught off the top edge and the opening experiment has failed. He will need the support of his friend Stokes to stay in the team unless he pulls a score out of the bag in the second innings.
With Root pulling to fine leg for 13, he is allowed the odd failure, Pope took charge. He clenched his teeth after two painful blows on his right elbow, the ball rearing off a length to show the pitch could spice up.
On 97 he punched through the off side and thought he had his hundred only for the ball to slow up as it rolled towards the boundary. He did not have to wait long for another freebie, Asitha Fernando serving up a ball full and wide that Pope could latch on to. He punched the air, but the general look on his face was one of relief.
Play resumes tomorrow at 11.00 with lunch at 13.15.Afternoon Session 13.55 – 16.10.Evening Session 16.10 – 18.30.98 overs to be bowled in the day.🤎 | #KiaOval https://t.co/4TwekAhFTp
England finish on 221 for three with the acting captain scoring his seventh Test century and his first at the Oval, his home ground. Very good day for England, terrible day for Sri Lanka and common sense. 
Hardly any rain all day at The Oval, floodlights on, yet 44.1 overs bowled across seven hours. Full house have shelled out on expensive tickets and won’t get a penny back
Former England captain Nasser Hussain speaking on Sky Sports:
Every year we have this discussion and I feel for spectators – they pay a lot of money for Test match tickets.
It’s difficult to explain to people; the batters have just scored 20 off the last four overs, they looked so comfortable, there was no threat [to the batters].
“There are so many things with the game I’d like to change with things like that.
We start at 11am tomorrow first ball, then in September and autumn are surprised it gets a bit dark at 5pm or 6pm. Why are we not starting at 10.30am tomorrow morning? County cricket does.
I’ve said this year in, year out and nothing changes.
I don’t think we will be getting anymore play here at the Oval – we have only had 44.1 overs today. The cloud over the Oval has not shifted all day and it is only going to get darker as the sun sets in south London.
Stuart Broad has just had his say on the conditions on Sky Sports saying they seem “absolutely fine.”
It has been a brilliant day for England but for Sri Lanka – they have looked very average indeed.
Ollie Pope 💯England’s stand-in captain with a hundred on his home turf 🙌 pic.twitter.com/uNiLndlZGI
The story of the day here at the Oval, as the umpires look at the light and play is stopped again! 
Boos ring around the ground, as one fan shouts: “Get on with it.”
As with the previous over, Harry Brook hands over the strike quickly with a single – Pope is just three runs away!
The Oval crowd rises as Pope finds the gap but only manages two. Two balls still remain in the over.
One run away now and Pope gets it! It is another boundary and Pope gets his seventh Test century and his first as England captain.
The perfect riposte from Ollie Pope to scoring just 30 runs in his first four innings as captain. The punch of the air was, by Pope’s standards, unusually emotional. Lovely to have a Surrey centurion on the first day of Test cricket at The Oval after Graham Thorpe’s passing.
Harry Brook begins the over with a single and then Ollie Pope drives the ball past square leg and is just one shot away from the century.
The England captain then hits another shot onto his elbow which requires some medical treatment.
He is able to continue, but takes a few deliveries to compose himself – four dot balls complete the over.
Sri Lanka have a review, as Ollie Pope takes a swipe at the ball down the leg side. But only Sri Lanka’s wicketkeeper seems fairly confident – the umpire has no interest.
Looking at the replay, there is nothing on it and Pope survives! Harry Brook then finds the gap beautifully as it slips to nick Fernando’s first ball for a boundary.
What a response from Pope, as he smashes one through the gap for a boundary – he moves into the nineties.
Ollie Pope begins the over by edging the second delivery over the diving fielder in the gully. The England captain moves to 88 – handing over the strike to Harry Brook on the fourth. 
Brook gets off the mark with a single on the fifth delivery.
Time to get back underway at the Oval – as tea comes to an end! 
The umpires are wandering out with Ollie Pope coming to the crease, as he chases a century. Sri Lanka need to improve their line, length and discipline in this session.
We have got a small break at the Oval before the evening sessions begins. 
Given the light, I think we will be lucky to get another hour of play in at most.
And you’d have to have a heart of stone not to… (Give the man a Bafta)
Check this out:
“Sorry, I’m getting all emotional” 🥲Freddie Flintoff delivering a cap presentation for the ages to make Josh Hull feel 9ft tall on debut 🦸 pic.twitter.com/OhBkMSo3i8
Duckett and Pope have batted with guile and panache to accelerate towards 200 off only 40 over but in bowler friendly conditions one has to say they have been helped by Sri Lanka’s tawdry bowling with only Milan Rathanayake emerging with any real credit. The captaincy and field positioning, fiddling with the field after a poor ball, and lack of application with a fruitful-looking short ball strategy have not helped.
Ellen McLaughlin will take the helm until 6pm. See you then if they can defy the gloom.  
Pope works Asitha F off his pads for three in the final over before tea and Sri Lanka’s right-armer walks off for tea with renewed hope by beating a flat-footed and squared up Brook outside off stump. 
Strange shot by Root. Not in his arsenal recently and the moment he connected he knew he was out, shaking his head and heading off to the pavilion chuntering before Vishwa had completed the catch. 
Brook comes in like a cat on a hot tin roof and charges Kumara but drags his drive along the ground to the fielder, then swivels into a gyroscope swing to try to hook a legside ball for six and almost topples over when he misses it. 
Root c Vishwa Fernando b Kumara 13 Half pull, half pick-up shot top-edged to fine leg who took a good catch in the gloom, making sure he planted his feet comfortably away from the rope.  FOW 191/3
Asitha Fernando hangs a floaty one outside off and Pope RSVPs with a slash, slicing it over the slips for four then pulls for a single to post the fifty partnership. Root, becalmed at 13 off 47, tries an expansive drive but creams it straight to cover. 
Root plays Mathews with respect and patience until given one on his hip and he biffs it round the corner for two. Four of Ange’s 33 Test wickets were Younis Khan. Quite a feather in Mathews’ cap to have a player who averaged 52 over 110+ Tests as your bunny. 
Asitha Fernando returns at Rathanayake’s expense and starts by working Pope’s inside edge until he manages to middle one and steer it down to third man for a single. Root is tempted into two drives but can’t beat the field with his first effort or reach the swinging ball with his second.  
Pope crunches Mathews’ half-volley for four then plays a vile stroke, charging down and dragging a drive to mid-on. Mathews gets one to bounce unexpectedly off a length outside off and Pope takes on the cut. Mathews has only a slip and gully and the ball flies off the top edge straight between the two. Mathews smiles ruefully. Pope grins. 
Another decent over from Rathanayake, his second maiden and Sri Lanka’s third. Root defends well, positively, looking for the gaps but finding only fielders. 
Big Ange is down to 75mph these days but he finds some rhythm despite hardly ever bowling, racking up four dot balls bookended by a pair of singles. I remember him nicking off Joe Root to Chandinal at Leeds 10 years ago, when he took four for 44 as captain.  
Maiden for Rathanayake, only the second of the match. Blimey, Angelo Mathews, in what might be his final Test (he has hinted at retirement and been dropped on many occasions in the past and come back) is going to have a bowl, having bowled only 20 overs in Tests since 2017 because of multiple injury issues. Can he add to his 33 wickets? 
The ball is starting to misbehave or behave, depending on your loyalties, and the smiles have returned to Sri Lankan faces. Vishwa Fernando makes one spit up and into Root’s thighpad, catching him on the hop, but does not build on it because he can’t control it and repeatedly sprays every other ball down the legside. 
Pope punches a cover drive off the back foot for four and carves a single behind point. Rathanayake then hits a sweet spot on the pitch and gets one to bite and climb away from Root’s edge twice in succession. Having beaten him with two balls, the next ball nips back in and crashes into Root’s thigh before the last ball is another ripper that angles in and snakes away as Root wafts at it outside off. A glimmer of hope for Sri Lanka. 
Here’s a Duckett ramp that was perfectly executed:
Ben Duckett is putting on a show at a fully-packed Kia Oval 🤯🤎 | #KiaOvalpic.twitter.com/uQGf0O8ruD
Vishwa Fernando returns for a third spell after two poor ones this morning and afternoon. His erstwhile Yorkshire team-mate Root whips him for two off middle peg and then opens the face to smear a single in front of point. Pope works a single off his pads with his Gray-Nicolls. Surrey used to be a Slazenger and later Kookaburra stronghold. Not anymore. 
Rathnayake implores the umpire to raise his finger when Root seemingly plays a solid forward defensive, thinking it just clipped the pad first, which it did but they decided not to review. Root works a single off his legs and Pope does the same for two. 
Fifty for Pope as he tries to hook Kumara and ends up top-edging it straight behind for six and then, in tribute to Root, dabs down to third man where a slip by Kamindu Mendis turns a single into four.
After a thick inside edge earns Old Red Socks in Rome a single, Root gets off the mark by clipping hard off his toes. The ball flies at catchable height but with too much pace and width to beat leg slip and  fly down for four. 
Ollie Pope gets his first fifty as captain👏 pic.twitter.com/f4xqZXrbY0
Ollie Pope has a great record at the Oval, and there’s already been evidence here that he knows the place inside out – the dimensions, the bounce, what he can leave, what he can play.   
Rathanayake finally gives his captain some control. Pope is tied down so uses his feet and scuffs a drive for a single, Duckett turns to funk to break the shackles and chips up a scoop to the keeper. 
Duckett c Chandimal b Rathanayake 86  As Sir Geoffrey would say: ‘Don’t you like making hundreds.’ Went for another ramp/scoop and sent it straight up the chimney. Chandimal moves to his right from behind the stumps to gather.  FOW 140/2
An eventful over; Duckett starts by scooping Kumara for six right over the keeper’s head, pulls a bouncer for two then uppercuts another short ball for six more. Kumara is furious and bangs the next one in too and Duckett angles his bat to glide it over the slips for two more. 
Kumara almost gets his revenge with one that straightens on him from round the wicket and pins him on the back thigh. On most batsmen, that would be too high to trouble the stumps but Sri Lanka send it upstairs after their appeal is turned down. Duckett stays in on umpire’s call but that was their best moment since winkling Lawrence out. 
Rathanayake implies to the umpires that the light has deteriorated so much that he cannot see it at square leg after not moving when Duckett cloths a pull between him and midwicket. But the umpires are not to be fooled. Duckett completes the over with a three, clumped square of cover. 
Duckett decides to have some fun and unfurls a ramp that goes for four but not quite as intended. Kumara was angling one in from round the wicket, Duckett jumped into a chest on stance and tried to ramp it over his right shoulder but it flies off the outside edge and clears the slips as before racing away to the rope. Kumara, annoyed, bounces him and Duckett pulls it for a single, rolling his wrists. 
Pope treats us to the shot of the match with a leg-drive through midwicket for four, his bottom hand closing to cuff it as he timed the stroke to perfection. 
Sri Lanka’s bowling coach must be despairing. Filth from Asitha Fernando, yielding a four and a prial of deuces to Pope. The boundary is a result of Asitha bowling wide outside off and Pope throwing his hands at it to slash it over point for four, two of the twos whipped off his pads and the other two was more streaky, coming off a bat withdrawn too late and ricocheting off the toe to the point sweeper.   
Kumara hits Pope a horrible blow on the top of the right forearm near the elbow and draws blood. Properly ‘heavy ball’ that bit off the pitch as he played forward. The umpires summon the physio who apply a plaster and tube bandage. Kumara has a leg slip in for Pope and it lures him into bowling on leg stump. Pope tucks it away off his hip for a single. Kumara comes round the wicket and beats Duckett with one that jags away then errs wider still and Duckett pokes a drive in front of point for two. 
Surrey’s Tommy Ealham, Nathan Barnwell & Ollie Sykes are on 12fers duty at the Test match today! 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 🤎 | #SurreyCricket pic.twitter.com/iJc5uEnVUO
Tommy Ealham’s dad, Mark, played in that famousrAshes victory at Edgbaston in 1997 and his grandfather, Alan, took a stunning catch as a sub for England in 1977. 
Pope leaves, blocks and tries to squeeze a drive past cover but cannot beat the fielder. The last ball is fuller and he Harrow drives it for a single off a big inside edge.
Lahiru Kumara is coming on for the woeful Vishwa.
Duckett has a big flash outside off but misses the swinging ball. The reassuringly solid thump of bat on ball returns as he raises the fifty partnership with a scything square cut for four. This bowling from all four quicks has been beyond bad. Dan Lawrence must be kicking himself.  
🎙️ Neither @MichaelVaughan or @philtufnell can remember playing against @campbellclaret 🤷‍♂️#TelegraphCricket
Chandimal cops another heavy blow on the hand as Asitha sprays an inswinger to Duckett down the legside and it keeps swinging. Chandimal just about manages to parry it but ends up wringing his pulverised mitt again. Fernando swings the next two on to Duckett’s pads and he feasts on the buffet bowling, clipping a two and a single to long leg. 
The left-armer begins with a pie, a floaty, wide, short one outside off and His Holiness cleaves a square cut for four. Next up he hoops a yorker down the legside but finally comes up with the goods, only once, with one that makes Pope flinch and fish outside off as it leaves him. Back to the dross with one sliding past leg again followed by another good nut on off that nips about and Pope defends it. The shorter one to end the over is clipped off the pads for a single. He has no rhythm but in two of his six deliveries Vishwa shows that he is a danger to Pope. 
Asitha Fernando restarts from over the wicket to Duckett, strays on to middle for the umpteenth time and the left-hander skelps a single off his pads. He goes wider to the Pontifex who reaches over to drive him through extra-cover for three. Asitha then finds his range momentarily and nibbles two away outside off yet once again sprays one down leg after the good work. Duckett has a waft at a leg glance but doesn’t connect. 
It will be an all Fernando start with Vishwa back on for his fourth over.  
After three hours off the field, they’re back out and Ben Duckett will be on strike. 
And tea will be taken at 5.10pm. So we will start with a two-hour session and 58 overs officially remain in the day. 
And play will resume at 3.10pm if no further rain. 
Looking a mile down the road to Vauxhall from Telegraph HQ suggests it is getting brighter. No word from the four amigos at the ground yet but hopes of play are building here (up the road). 
A few more brollies up now, but far from torrential. It’s definitely better than Edinburgh…
Eerie scenes at The Grange!The toss for the second #SCOvAUS T20I has been delayed by 30 minutes. pic.twitter.com/xaFFWc5P1M
Soggily scenic #EngvSL pic.twitter.com/qT20uCHXAJ
It’s now raining, and the covers are being bolstered. It’s already hard to see how this won’t be an extremely frustrating day, because it’s not going to get any lighter.  
The afternoon session is delayed due to continued bad light 😔☁️ 🤎 | #SurreyCricket pic.twitter.com/0PyP8vuy23
England’s summer of regeneration is complete as average age plummets by six years
No Bairstow, Anderson or Broad…
Now it’s raining. 
But no sign of play. The covers are still on and though the umpires have been out, it’s still deemed too dark to resume. 
They are showing Graham Thorpe’s comeback Test against South Africa in 2003. Well worth a look if you have the chance. Aye, fond memory of Thorpey, Tres and Bickers. 
MP Vaughan has written his blueprint for saving Test cricket for the Telegraph today. Four years ago he addressed the issue of bad light and how anachronistic and anti-spectator it is given technological innovations of the past three decades. 
Bad light is more of an issue in England than the rest of the world so it is down to our game to come up with a workable solution. 
English cricket has ploughed millions into floodlights at these grounds and to put on matches in biosecure environments. But in almost every Test we have seen times when the players have gone off at the merest hint of bad light. It is up to the International Cricket Council to stop it but that will only happen if the broadcasters around the world, who pay millions to show Test cricket, force the boards to make more of an effort by asking for a refund for play lost to bad light. 
You can read the column in full here
It is gloomy here, very gloomy. One more ball and Surrey will only have to fork out 50 percent refunds because we have had 15 overs bowled exactly. Up to 15 overs – full refund. Between 15.1 and 30.1 it is 50 percent refunds. After that, no money back.
In Michael Vaughan’s Telegraph column this morning he bemoaned how quick umpires are to whip players off the field for their own safety. Well, this feels like a good example of that. It’s gently spitting, and a bit dark. But folk are paying top dollar for a ticket here, and deserve to watch some action. 
So we face a couple of marathon sessions this afternoon and evening to fit in 75 overs (yeah, right!) should the rain go away and the light improve. 
Are we going to see a rare hundred by an England opener now Ben Duckett passed 50 off only 48 balls and looks in fine fettle? It is five years, almost to the day, since Alastair Cook retired. Since then more hundreds have been scored in England by overseas openers (five) than by the home team four (from 32 England innings). Duckett has one – against Ireland – and Crawley one too, his barnstorming Ashes innings at Old Trafford. The other two were scored by Sibley and Burns. 
Sibley’s hundred (against West Indies in 2020) is the only one in the first innings of a Test. Duckett and Crawley have left hundreds out there, playing their selfless Bazball style, and a couple of fruity years with the Duke ball made life difficult for openers. Sibley, Burns and Lawrence had technical flaws. Duckett, it feels, should make a hundred today and if it does, it will be very different to those compiled by Sir Cooky.
England walk in at 76 for one. The Met Office shows a 50 per cent chance of rain for the next hour and a half, reducing to 40 at 2pm then down to 20 for a couple of hours and back up to 30 for the remains of the day. Cloud cover and hence the gloom looks constant, however. 
It’s been gloomy all morning. The covers are also coming on, though it’s not raining yet. England will be delighted to have got to 76-1 in these conditions. 
Half-century for Duckett with a cracking no-footwork drive through cover for three off the returning Vishwa Fernando. The left-armer extracts enough bounce to beat Pope on the cut next ball and the tenor of his anguished yelp expresses the frustration of the whole side this morning. The bowler shows a turn of pace to hare up the pitch in his followthrough when Pope is sent back after calling for a homicidal single that would have done for Duckett. He turns tail and gets home as Vishwa dives and shies at the stumps.
And here comes the rain to go with the bad light. The umpires are taking the players off. 
50 is up for Ben Duckett off just 48 balls 🔥His 10th Test fifty in 26 matches 🏏 pic.twitter.com/Uf6q43kfmN
Better from Kumara to Pope – consistently quicker, tighter and fuller. Pope gets his nose over four defensives and has a big yahoo at the one wider one, playing and missing on the drive. A maiden at last for Sri Lanka. 
The pause and drink has done nothing to stiffen Sri Lanka’s discipline with the ball. Rathnayake serves up two wide ones, the first short and Duckett carves a square cut for four wide of gully, the next pitched up so Duckett flashes a drive at it and flays it for four more.
Rathnayake makes minor amends with two better deliveries testing Duckett with a scrambled seam and he blocks one and is beaten by the other. 
Pope heralds the drinks waiter in style by clumping Kumara for six to deep backward square off a pat-a-cake bouncer to end the over after exploiting one that was too straight to whip it for three between square leg and midwicket. 
Too straight all morning. Sri Lanka won the toss and flushed the advantage straight down the toilet. 
Glorious way to get off the mark for Pope with a late cut off Rathanayake for four. Sri Lanka should be turning the screw on the England captain after a run of low scores but Rathanayake is spraying it all over the shop. 
I suppose he has got one Test innings left and if he doesn’t fire he won’t be going to Pakistan or anywhere else. Chalices don’t come much more poisoned for middle order batsmen than being made to open in England . 
Ponting points out that Lawrence tried to control the pull for a single and hence decelerated the speed of his bat swing. He needed to commit to it and hit it for four but got caught in what the great malaprop Kenny Barrington called ‘two man’s land’. 
Pope gets off strike straightaway with a leg bye of his thighpad and Duckett milks two straight balls for a two and a single through the onside. 
Lawrence c Nissanka b Kumara 5  Went for a pull but the ball didn’t get up. His head was all over the place as he thrashed at it and spooned it off the top edge, the bat no higher than mid-thigh, to gully.  FOW 45/1
That really is an ugly dismissal for Dan Lawrence. His opening partner, Ben Duckett, has ridden his luck, but looks to be ticking now. Time to make it count, which he has failed to do all summer. 
Rathnayake replaces Asitha and Duckett drives a length ball on a fourth stump line for three between bowler and mid-off. Lovely stroke but then shows his chops for Baz’s forthcoming white-ball reset by dancing down the pitch to successive deliveries and smiting them over extra for a pair of fours. McCullum applauds the last shot heartily. 
Better by Kumara who starts with two men out on the pull. The bounce isn’t there and Lawrence steps across to turn it through square leg for a single. Duckett flicks for two off middle and adds a single with the same stroke next ball. Bowling far too straight if there’s no seam movement. They have to shift to the corridor and look for the edge. 
Ricky Ponting is back in the Sky box, flying in a game early before the two white-ball series against the 50-over world champions. He’s about as shrewd a commentator as there is. Duckett works a single off his toes down to fine leg and Lawrence pinches the strike with another whip to the same fielding position. Ponting immediately notes that Lawrence’s right big toe is almost on off stump as he tries to get in line and enhance the opportunity to work straight balls to leg. 
Sir Geoffrey would probably prefer Ben Duckett to leave the ball just a little more often, as the new ball is zipping around, rather than throwing his bat. But there is no third man if Duckett does get a thick edge…
Chandimal has been in the wars this series and is struck on the middle finger and then jars his already heavily bandaged thumb on the ground, the thumb tenderised by Mark Wood at Old Trafford. The ball hoops down the legside, swinging after the crease. They jog two byes. He’s going to need some treatment. There is no room for any more tape on his hand, though. 
Patched up, he decides to continue. He could easily give the gloves to Nissanka and go and stand at long leg but keepers are masochists. Too short from Kumara and outside off, the ball sits up nicely and Duckett slaps it off the back foot through point for four and then  plays tip and run with and angled-bat slice to cover for a single. 
Lawrence gets away off his 11th ball, tucking one off middle through midwicket for two. 
This reminds me of watching England bowling first in Australia on the past three Ashes tours, exasperatingly not using the conditions to their advantage, almost bottling their best opportunity. Sri Lanka are in danger of wasting the initiative with their lack of consistency in both length and line. 
Another characteristic Duckett stroke, a back-foot punch for three in front of point gives Lawrence a first opportunity against Asitha F and he leaves two and defends one. Dhananjaya has had enough of Vishal’s floaty left-armers and calls up his quickest bowler, Lahiru Kumara. 
Vishal has lost about 5mph off his average speed this summer but, a wide notwithstanding, is still a canny operator and again beats Legside Larry outside off with one that nips away from the right-hander. Lawrence gets off strike with a bye as one swings and soars like a drunk wasp late and beats Chandimal behind the stumps who just about lays a glove on it. 
But then the left-armer strays on to Duckett’s pads and the left-armer flicks successive balls off middle and leg through backward square and midwicket for four and three respectively. 
Duckett has another wild flash at one outside off, missing by a mile. And then Asitah does him with another one outside off that he almost drags on. It scoots off Duckett’s inside edge of the toe and misses leg stump by no more than a centimetre. He gets four but he’s on thin ice and is beaten by a ripper that angles in to off and nibbles away to beat the left-hander. 
Kumar Sangakkara feels straightaway that Vishwa Fernando expects the pitch and conditions to do a lot of the work for him and floats the ball in too much. For the second Test running, Kumar has come as Roy Orbison. Big bins. He wants to see more effort from the left-armer who beats Lawrence outside off with the last ball after Duckett walks across the pitch to cuff a single through midwicket with a stirring motion of his bottom wrist. 
No frontline spinner in Sri Lanka’s team – Vishwa Fernando coming in for Prabath Jayasuriya. It’s t’other Fernando. Lord’s five-for man Asitha with first dibs on the new pill. Duckett is on strike and the lights are on. The left-hander blocks the first two with positive intent then tries to cut one outside off with a bat halfway between horizontal and vertical but it climbs on him and he has a big whoosh at the air instead. Duckett gets off the mark with a straighter bat and Lawrence defends his first ball into the legside. Sri Lanka have only two slips for Lawrence but have blocked off cover with a ring, clearly trying to test his patience in the medium term.
Vishwa, the left-armer who starred for Yorkshire with 17 wickest in three Championship games earlier in the season, will share the new ball. 
Thanks to Giles Mole for opening up today. Bagchi here for the next couple of sessions. It’s one of those days at the Oval… very murky, a lot of moisture in the air, oyster skies and Dan Lawrence walking out to bat after the national anthems with a last pair of chances to impress as an opener. 
When Sri Lanka won at the Oval in 1998, Muthiah Muralidaran took 16 wickets in the match – one of Test cricket’s greatest-ever performances. This time, Sri Lanka haven’t got a spinner at all, leaving out Prabath Jayasuriya: understandably, given the gloomy conditions. They needed to win the toss, and they have.
A reminder of who is playing today. England have made one change with Josh Hull, the 20-year-old Leicestershire left-arm quick who stands at six-foot seven, replacing Matthew Potts, who is fit.
England: Dan Lawrence, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope (captain), Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jamie Smith (wk), Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Josh Hull, Shoaib Bashir.
Sri Lanka: Dimuth Karunaratne, Pathum Nissanka, Kusal Mendis, Angelo Mathews, Dinesh Chandimal (wk), Dhananjaya de Silva (captain), Kamindu Mendis, Milan Rathnayake, Lahiru Kumara, Vishwa Fernando, Asitha Fernando.
SIZE 15 FEET? 😅6ft7 Josh Hull makes his England Test debut today against Sri Lanka 🙌 pic.twitter.com/ekXvpqmKN2
Freddie Flintoff, who is replacing Marcus Trescothick as batting coach this week (Tres is with the white-ball team), has presented Josh Hull with his Test cap. 
Anyway, we will have to wait and see him bowl, because Sri Lanka have won the toss and chosen to bowl. No brainer. 
There is a lovely street art mural to Graham Thorpe next to the Alec Stewart gate, his great friend and Surrey team-mate.
Stewart was one of many former (and current) England captains at St George’s Cathedral in Southwark on Wednesday for Thorpe’s funeral. Root and Stokes were pall bearers. Richard Thompson, the current ECB and former Surrey chair, read a eulogy.
Thompson’s own cricket ambitions were over when he bowled to a teenage Thorpe in the Surrey nets. Geoff Arnold, the grizzled Surrey bowling guru, took Thompson aside and said he should concentrate on another career after Thorpe took him apart.
Thorpe’s father, Geoff, read the final eulogy, a poem about a father losing his son, before everyone filed back to the Oval for the wake.
Photographs of Thorpe were shown on the big screen and glasses raised to a cricketer fondly remembered and mourned.
Good morning from the Oval, where I’m back after a couple of weeks off being a parent. Great to be back.
It is, as Rob has said, pretty gloomy, but the players are warming up and the covers are off, so perhaps we will get a timely toss and start. I live a couple of miles away in south London and there was an extraordinary electrical storm at about 5am that will have soaked the outfield, but the drainage is good here. Anyway, all this adds up to being a bowl first day. 
It ain’t great! After last night’s thunderstorms, light rain is expected pretty much all day, although there should (hopefully) be enough breaks in the rain to get some play in. Fingers crossed and we’ll keep you posted.
Condition check: Overcast ☁️ pic.twitter.com/DDFDb9dwA4
England head into the final Test of the summer against Sri Lanka looking to make it six wins from six and record their first perfect record since 2004.
And there are plenty of interesting sub-plots too, Joe Root’s sublime form with the bat being the most eye-catching. He is within touching distance of an incredible landmark.
Here, we look at the main areas of discussion at the Oval…
Joe Root’s purple patch continued with record-breaking twin tons at Lord’s. Not only did he extend his lead on top of the ICC’s batting rankings, he also surpassed Sir Alastair Cook as England’s leading Test centurion by taking his career tally to 34. The 33-year-old is now just 96 runs short of overtaking Cook’s national-record total of 12,472 and replacing his fellow former England captain in fifth place in the all-time list. With 350 runs in the series so far and six Test centuries against Sri Lanka at an impressive average of 67.55, Root will fancy his chances of continuing his dominance over the tourists and passing Cook’s mark.
England have made another major selection gamble by drafting in 20-year-old Josh Hull, who boasts just 16 wickets at an average of 62.75 in his brief first-class career. The 6ft 7in Leicestershire left-armer has taken only two wickets in three matches in Division Two of the County Championship this year at an average of 182.50, but brings physical attributes that mark him out from the crowd. England’s recent record with debutant bowlers is outstanding – with Will Jacks, Rehan Ahmed, Josh Tongue, Tom Hartley and Gus Atkinson all taking five-fors in their first Test appearance. Can Hull follow their lead?
Ollie Pope has enjoyed back-to-back wins since replacing the injured Ben Stokes as captain but things have not gone to plan with the bat. The No 3 has made just 30 runs in four innings and been guilty of some careless dismissals. Former England skipper Michael Vaughan has questioned Pope’s long-term suitability for the job but some of the pressure would ease with a big score. There is nowhere he would rather be than the Kia Oval, a ground where he boasts an outstanding record with Surrey. With an average of 53.66 in two Tests on his home track, and a top score of 81, he will have high hopes.
Pope is not the only batter struggling for a score, with his Surrey team-mate Dan Lawrence yet to grab the opportunity created by Zak Crawley’s broken finger at the top of the order. Lawrence has been around the England squad for the last four years without a consistent run and was unlucky that this opportunity came as an opener. A natural middle-order strokemaker, his return of 80 runs in four visits has created more questions than answers. With places to play for on the forthcoming tour of Pakistan, he needs to show more to stay ahead of the pack.
Sri Lanka arrived in England with a seasoned batting group and a handful of key men averaging north of 40 in Test cricket. But Dimuth Karunaratne, Angelo Mathews, Dinesh Chandimal and captain Dhananjaya de Silva have all made heavy weather of English conditions. The quartet have all made half-centuries but relative newcomer Kamindu Mendis has outshone them all. He has averaged 50.75 so far, with 113 at Old Trafford and 74 at Lord’s. He was tipped to move up the order after his solid showings but De Silva plans to keep him at number seven.