England frustrated as Sri Lanka fight back in The Oval Test
England vs Sri Lanka day 2 test:
Day 2 of the third Test at The Oval saw England having a bad day with Sri Lanka putting up a great fightback in helpful conditions for spin in the final session. Earlier, fast bowlers of England, spearheaded by Olly Stone, had managed to restrict Sri Lanka to 93/5, which gave them the belief that an early finish might just be possible. The unbroken 118-run partnership between Kamindu Mendis and Dhananjaya de Silva saw Sri Lanka fight back to 211/5 at stumps on Day 2, leaving England frustrated.
England resumed the day at 221/3 but didn’t carry on with the good start to get bowled out for 325. With the lights getting poor, the English attacked with spinners for 17 overs in the final session on account of the umpires, who ruled the light was poor. “They’re the rules, aren’t they? You can’t change those,” an aware Olly Stone said about the limits the team had. “We would have loved to bowl seam, but it’s out of our hands.”
It was also a moment of test for the temporary captain of England, Ollie Pope, who faced an important decision once again. During a similar situation during the first Test at Old Trafford, Pope decided to bowl 12 overs of spin that allowed the Lankans-who were initially struggling at 113/7-to get a respectable score. On Wednesday at Lord’s, Pope pulled his players early off the ground, where his call found criticism from former skipper Eoin Morgan. This time, Pope chose spinners since the umpires declared that it was not safe to bowl with seamers.
According to the Laws of cricket, the umpires consider the conditions—whether light, weather, or whatever—to be unacceptable or dangerous to play. “Contemplative, Stone said, “Everyone could see the ball, but we have to respect the umpires’ decision. We want to play for as long as we can, but safety comes first.”
At one juncture, Chris Woakes had to bowl spin in the middle of his over as it was too bad for fast bowling. Woakes bowled four off-spin balls as Pathum Nissanka hit a boundary and were back to pace bowling. “It’s tricky, we wanted to stay out there and that was the option available,” Stone said.
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But England have not been deterred by the minor setback and will be trying to take the game forward, either with pace or spin, once Day 3 gets underway.