As the anthems are played, we get a close look at both sides. If it was a competition to see who had more stubble, the Sri Lankans would be heading for an easy win.

The bell is rung by Mahela Jayawardene. He didn’t just make heaps of stylish runs for one of these nations: he went on to work as a batting consultant for the other.

On Sky, the first Oasis song of the day is ringing out. “It’s Lord’s, we’ve gotta go for Champagne Supernova, haven’t we?”

The first email has landed and it’s from our old friend Gary Naylor. “I suspect that there will not be swathes of empty seats on the fourth day – if MCC prices tickets correctly,” he says. “Fifth day ticket prices is something that cricket has got right in recent years and surely the flexibility shown with cut-price seats should extend to other days if advance sales look thin? After all, the overheads are fixed and there’s money to be made on the merch and refreshments. No doubt people who paid 'full price’ weeks ago might quibble, but that’s the nature of the beast.” Hmm, flexibility … not always MCC’s middle name.

As both captains showed their hand yesterday, it’s a Radiohead team sheet: no surprises. Olly Stone replaces the injured Mark Wood, while Sri Lanka make two changes – Pathum Nissanka for Kusal Mendis, to try and avoid being 6 for 3; and Lahiru Kamara for Vishwa Fernando, to add weight to the seam bowling.

England 1 Ben Duckett, 2 Dan Lawrence, 3 Ollie Pope (capt), 4 Joe Root, 5 Harry Brook, 6 Jamie Smith (wkt), 7 Chris Woakes, 8 Gus Atkinson, 9 Matthew Potts, 10 Olly Stone, 11 Shoaib Bashir.

Sri Lanka 1 Dimuth Karunaratne, 2 Nishan Madushka (wkt), 3 Pathum Nissanka, 4 Angelo Mathews, 5 Dinesh Chandimal, 6 Dhananjaya de Silva (capt), 7 Kamindu Mendis, 8 Milan Rathnayake, 9 Prabath Jayasuriya, 10 Asitha Fernando, 11 Lahiru Kumara

Dhananjaya de Silva calls right and chooses to bat first puts England in. Perhaps he can see clouds overhead that nobody else has spotted.

Morning everyone and welcome to the Lord’s Test. That seems an odd thing to be saying at the end of August, and on closer inspection this match turns out to be the second-latest Test ever staged at Lord’s (after England v West Indies 2017, which began on 7 September). The more senior members of MCC will be in grave danger of slipping on the first conker of autumn. But the weather gods have decided to pretend that it’s still high summer: not till Monday afternoon does the chance of rain in any given hour go above 10 per cent.

For Ollie Pope’s England team, there’s a series to be won after they crept to victory at Old Trafford in a style to which they are now unaccustomed. For Sri Lanka, who lost that match but won acclaim for their tenacity, there’s a jolt of pressure, which could be bracing: they simply have to win this time. For MCC, there will be swathes of empty seats if the game goes into a fourth day. That Test in 2017 didn’t make it to a third tea-break as West Indies scored 300 in both their innings combined, but a line-up with Kamindu Mendis down at No 7 can surely do better than that.

Play starts at 11am UK time and I’ll be back 25 minutes before that with news of the toss.

The new ball is in the hands of Asitha Fernando, so impressive at Old Trafford. Waiting for him is Ben Duckett, the opener who can’t stand playing no stroke.

1st over: England 1-0 (Duckett 1, Lawrence 0) Fernando starts with a yorker, swinging into Duckett, who digs it out and steals a single. A more orthodox ball, jagging in towards Dan Lawrence’s off stump, brings an LBW appeal, but it’s too high. Are England still in the subdued mode with which they stunned us in Manchester?

2nd over: England 2-0 (Duckett 2, Lawrence 0) From the Nursery End, it’s Milan Rathnayake, who made his debut last week and batted better than he bowled. He makes a steady start, starving Duckett of the width he craves until the last ball, which is chopped for another single. Two overs, two runs – someone tell Sir Geoffrey, Test creekit is back.

3rd over: England 14-0 (Duckett 14, Lawrence 0) Hang on, Duckett has found his groove. He square-drives Fernando for four, then off-drives him for four more. Fernando recovers with a couple of dot balls, then goes too wide and lets Duckett glide a third four. He’s helped himself to 13 off seven balls from Fernando.

4th over: England 19-0 (Duckett 14, Lawrence 1) Don’t bowl wide of off to Duckett, don’t go the other way to Lawrence… Rathnayake forgets this and concedes four byes, followed by a single to get Lawrence off the mark. He made 30 and 34 in his first go as a makeshift Test opener – the kind of scores that get frowned upon, but more than anyone else in either top three managed.

5th over: England 23-0 (Duckett 14, Lawrence 5) Lawrence, facing Fernando, gets lucky as an inside edge goes for four. Fun fact: Sri Lanka haven’t lost at Lord’s since Ian Botham was playing for England, back in 1991.

6th over: England 30-0 (Duckett 16, Lawrence 9) Rathnayake started very tidily but now the openers tuck in. Duckett clips for two and takes a leg-bye, leaving Lawrence to play a straight drive for four. That was so easy, just a push.

7th over: England 33-1 (Duckett 19, Pope 0) That was a four-card trick from Kumara, who kept angling the ball into Lawrence, then moved it away, up the slope. Lawrence didn’t help himself by going down the track, which left him with less time to adjust. And then Kumara beat Pope outside off too. In one over, he’s changed the complexion of the game.

The breakthrough! And it’s a bowling change that makes the difference as Lahiru Kumara’s extra pace tells.

8th over: England 39-1 (Duckett 20, Pope 1) Pope copes better with Rathnayake, going back to flip a short one for a single. On the balcony, Ben Stokes keeps a beady eye on his understudy.

9th over: England 39-1 (Duckett 20, Pope 1) Kumara beats Pope again, cutting him in half like a magician, and then a third time, which brings a loud appeal for caught behind. Pope, as so often, is starting with a stutter, while Kumara (2-1-3-1) has started with a bang. “He was all smiles in practice,” says Mel Jones. “He’s all glares now.”

10th over: England 46-2 (Duckett 23, Root 4) Joe Root runs to the middle and clips his first ball for four. But that won’t bother the Sri Lankans too much as the past quarter of an hour. belongs to them Another bowling change, another wicket. Fernando switched ends, dropped short and lured Pope into a miscued front-foot pull. As the ball sailed into the St John’s Wood skies, Dhananjaya de Silva took charge, kept calm and sent his opposite number packing. He gets credit for both wickets and now his decision to bowl doesn’t look so silly.

One brings two! And the England captain has gone.

11th over: England 54-2 (Duckett 26, Root 9) It will take more than a couple of wickets to bother Ben Duckett. Facing Kumara, he plays a pull for two and a flick for a single. Root, getting forward nicely, adds a straight push for four. and a glance for another single. Between them, these two have cruised to 35 off 34 balls, while the other two batters scraped 10 off 32.

12th over: England 58-2 (Duckett 28, Root 11) Fernando continues and so do the runs – two singles to each batter. They’re both so busy and yet so relaxed. And that’s drinks, which is Sky’s chance to torment us with that awful ad that Stuart Broad agreed to appear in in a moment of madness.

It’s been an hour of two halves – the first all England, as Duckett took charge, the second belonging to Sri Lanka as Dhananjaya de Sliva hit back with two wily bowling changes. And now Duckett and Root are threatening to take back control. Ebb and flow, you can’t beat it.

13th over: England 65-2 (Duckett 35, Root 11) The first ball after drinks brings a poor shot from Duckett, wafting outside off as Kumara moves the ball away down the slope. But he gets his act together with a dab for two and a cover-drive for four, flipped with a flourish.

And here’s Kim Thonger. “Checking in from a car park in Shepton Mallet, Somerset,” he writes, “waiting my wife’s re-emergence after her audit of the inventory in a certain well-known fashion brand’s factory shop. I shan’t mention the name directly but it’s associated with marmalade. Anyway, it’s showering slightly, appropriate since we are opposite Showering’s, the makers of Babycham, the go-to drink of my early girlfriends. It was either that or a snowball in the 70s. Those were the options. End of.

“It makes me wonder whether the wonderful Wurzels ever did a version of the Oasis song you mentioned, titled Babycham Supernova? If they didn’t they should have done. And followed it with Ciderwall.”

14th over: England 67-2 (Duckett 37, Root 11) Rathanayake returns and gives Duckett some trouble. First he fends at a lifter, finding only thin air, then he scoops the ball in the air towards cover and picks up a streaky two. But Duckett survives and, in Tests at Lord’s, he now averages 100.

15th over: England 68-2 (Duckett 37, Root 12) Root makes his first false move as Kumara, who has asked all the right questions, beats him on the inside edge and appeals for LBW. Paul Reiffel says not out, Sri Lanka review and it’s tight … umpire’s call, clipping the leg bail.

16th over: England 71-2 (Duckett 37, Root 15) After that near-miss, Root decides to play himself in. Rathanayake strings together five dots, but then Root clips for three off a delivery that is much the same as the one that nearly got him, just not as fast.

“Thanks for the fab coverage,” says Ed Hopkinson. “Any chance of the TMS link for overseas listeners?” Hoping somebody can help.

17th over: England 73-2 (Duckett 38, Root 16) Kumara continues, concedes a single to each batter and beats Root again, on the outside edge this time.

“Quick message,” says Peter Gibbs from his campervan in Anglesey. “No more Oasis stuff here if that’s possible?” Ha. Can’t promise – you never know what will happen, an elderly man in a panama hat might hold up a sign saying Don’t Look Back In Anger. But I do take your point. The people have spoken.

18th over: England 76-2 (Duckett 39, Root 18) Rathnayake continues and Kumara, not content with bowling a fine spell, saves a run with a fearless dive as Root plays a steer down the hill. Root has slowed down after that rapid start but he’s still showing intent, standing a yard outside his crease. Rathnayake, like Kumara, gets one past his outside edge. The ball has done more since Duckett hit the lacquer off it.

19th over: England 83-3 (Root 23, Brook 1) Seeing a spinner for the first time today, both batters were aggressive. Root played an immaculate sweep of the old-fashioned variety, but then Duckett, who usually plays it well, misjudged the reverse, didn’t get over it and sent a top edge soaring towards Kumara, who held it coolly to add to his good morning. Advantage Sri Lanka.

Yet another bowliing change, yet another wicket. And another top edge, as Duckett gets the reverse-sweep all wrong.

20th over: England 87-3 (Root 23, Brook 5) Harry Brook, facing Rathanayake, is watchful until the last ball, which he eases for four with a back-foot square drive. That was classy.

21st over: England 91-3 (Root 27, Brook 5) Dhananjaya de Silva does like to ring the changes. Lahiru Kamara’s reward for taking that catch is to be brought straight back into the attack, replacing the wicket-taker Jayasuriya. Root spots a half-volley and strokes a cover drive, straight out of the MCC Coaching Book (if it still exists). Ben Stokes strolls round the boundary with his pads on, looking as if he owns the place. His predecessor plays another drive for no runs as the ball thuds into the stumps at the non-striker’s end.

The TMS link has come in, from Nick Kai Nielsen in Châtellerault, near Poitiers, and he even shares the recipe. “Overseas link for TMS: https://www.youtube.com/live/7Zk587xyI4o. Method: BBC cricket > Test live (their version of your sterling efforts) > link in sidebar.” Magnificent, thank you.

22nd over: England 94-3 (Root 28, Brook 7) Three singles off Fernando, and no more alarms.

23rd over: England 97-3 (Root 29, Brook 9) Kumara bothers Root again, with a bouncer this time, hurrying him into a brush of the glove that could easily have brought a wicket. Brook gets a bouncer too and shows the old boy how it’s done, playing a savage pull that rings out like a gunshot and deserves more than the single it gets.

24th over: England 97-3 (Root 29, Brook 9) Fernando, who got this party started, brings the morning to a close with a testing over, beating Brook and drying up the flow of runs. The morning belongs to Dhananjaya de Silva, who startled everyone by opting to bowl and then went some way to proving himself right by grabbing three wickets with inspired bowling changes. For England, Ollie Pope flopped for the third time in a row as stand-in captain. Ben Duckett was assured while he lasted and Joe Root has carried on where he left off at Old Trafford, but as the teams tuck into the legendary Lord’s lunch, it will be the Sri Lankans who feel happier.

After establishing a 1-0 lead in this series with the most understated win of the Bazball era, England will this week aim to do something they haven’t achieved for 33 years – beat Sri Lanka at Lord’s.

Victory in Manchester last Saturday was, as Joe Root admitted afterwards, “ugly”. England were nowhere near their best in the first Test as they grafted to a hard-fought win in four days.

The absence of captain Ben Stokes, and the inexperience of his stand-in Ollie Pope, was part of the reason for the lack of their usual aggression and swagger. A low, slow Old Trafford pitch was another, particularly during a long, drawn-out chase of 205 that required all of Root’s nous to get his team over the line.

The series-ending injury to Mark Wood that robbed the hosts of their fastest bowler for the final day didn’t help either. But the manner of victory was not what England fans have become accustomed to in the two years since Stokes and coach Brendon McCullum took over the team with an attacking philosophy that has produced some of the most exhilarating Test cricket of the modern era.

Lord’s is, of course, where Bazball started back in 2022, with Root again the man who got England over the line in a tense run chase against New Zealand.

From humble beginnings, the team grew under the leadership of Stokes and McCullum. Overall there have now been 18 victories from 27 Tests – an impressive win percentage of 66.66.

Yet this team is changing. It might have only been a little over two years ago but there are just three survivors from that first Bazball Test playing this week: Root, Pope and Matthew Potts.

Stokes and Zak Crawley are injured but others, notably wicketkeeper Ben Foakes and Jonny Bairstow, have fallen out of favour while Stuart Broad and James Anderson, England’s two greatest bowlers, have retired.

An attack this week of Potts, Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Olly Stone and Shoaib Bashir will have to work hard for the 20 Sri Lankan wickets England need to wrap up the series.

But history is not on England’s side given they have not beaten Sri Lanka at Lord’s since 1991. Back then Graham Gooch, Robin Smith, Ian Botham and Phil Tufnell were part of an England team that won by 137 runs.

In five Tests since, England have drawn a blank – with every match finishing in a stalemate, most recently in 2016.

Teams:

Other than their 43-year drought against Australia at Old Trafford, where they have not won in eight games stretching back to 1981, it is England’s longest winless run at a single home ground against any opponent.

While history will not determine the outcome of this second Test, Sri Lanka will take confidence from their proud Lord’s record – losing just two of eight Tests overall – and from the way they battled so hard in Manchester after losing a clutch of early wickets in both innings.

It suggests that they may take this game even deeper given they have an extra week’s preparation in the bank.

England cannot expect a walkover like they had against the West Indies at this venue earlier this summer, hustling out their opponents for 121 and 136 as they steamrollered their way to victory in little more than two days.

A truer pitch will help the hosts, with the bowlers hoping to find more swing and seam when the ball gets older than they did in Manchester. Drier weather in the South and a forecast for sun on all five scheduled days may aid reverse swing.

In terms of batting, this will be another chance for Dan Lawrence to show what he can do as a makeshift opener after his pair of thirties last week in Manchester. Jamie Smith, fresh from his maiden Test century, and Harry Brook, who has not yet properly caught fire this summer, will also be looking to kick on.

And Pope, with two scores of six last week, is aware he needs runs to quieten down chat about whether he really is the man to bat at No 3 long term. To that end, he has sought advice from Root, whose returns with the bat were phenomenal during his five years as Test captain.

“The runs didn’t come for me but for the team to get the win, that’s the most important thing,” said Pope.

“That’s something I’ve spoken to Joe Root about as well – a very successful England captain who did Joe Root things with the bat throughout. Hopefully over the next couple of weeks, I can go and put some good scores together with the team.”

For England, another win would not only wrap up the series but put them one away from a perfect Test summer of seven victories from seven. First, though, they will need to bury their Lord’s hoodoo against Sri Lanka.

LONDON (AP) — Sri Lanka made a promising start to the second test against England at Lord’s by skittling out the home team’s top order before lunch after winning the toss on a glorious day at the home of cricket on Thursday.

England reached the end of the first session on 97-3, with Joe Root (29 not out) and Harry Brook (9 not out) attempting to steady the innings after seeing two of their teammates throw away their wickets.

While probing bowling by recalled pacer Lahiru Kumara accounted for Dan Lawrence nicking behind for 9, stand-in captain Ollie Pope and Ben Duckett will feel an element of regret after choosing the wrong shot when getting out.

Pope (1) got cramped up after opting to pull Asitha Fernando and misjudged his shot that looped up into the hands of Dhananjaya de Silva running to square leg.

That made it 42-2, and it was 82-3 when Duckett (40) top-edged a reverse sweep off the fourth ball of spinner Prabath Jayasuriya’s first over and was caught near the boundary by Kumara.

Sri Lanka’s bowling attack offered more penetration than in the five-wicket loss to England in the first test in Manchester last week. That was plenty down to Kumara (1-28), who took the place of Vishwa Fernando and was causing England's batters problems with his pace and line.

Pope, filling in as captain again for the injured Ben Stokes, said he would have batted first if he won the toss, which was made under a blue sky in northwest London.

Sri Lanka also brought in batter Pathum Nissanka for Kusal Mendis and Vishwa Fernando.

England's only change saw Olly Stone come in for fellow fast bowler Mark Wood, who was missing with a thigh injury.

The third and final match of the series is also in London — at the Oval — next week.

AP cricket: https://apnews.com/hub/cricket  

Thu 29 Aug 2024

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