England v Sri Lanka - Test Match Series

England will be without Mark Wood for the remainder of the innings after pulling up with a thigh injury yesterday.

(23-08-2024 11:27 )Boomerangutangangbang Wrote:  

(22-08-2024 09:42 )Boomerangutangangbang Wrote:  

(21-08-2024 09:30 )Boomerangutangangbang Wrote:  England v Sri Lanka 1st Test - Old Trafford Day 4
TeaToss Sri Lanka elected to bat
Sri Lanka 236 (74 overs) Dhananjaya 74 Rathnayake 72 Kusal Mendis 24 Woakes 3-32 Atkinson 2-48 Bashir 3-55
England 358 (85.3 overs) Smith 111 Brook 56 Root 42 Asitha 4-103 Prabath 3-85
Vishwa 2-73
Sri Lanka 326 (82 overs) Kamindu 113 Chandimal 79 Mathews 65 Potts 3-47 Woakes 2-58 Atkinson 2-89
England 205-5 (57.2 overs) Root 62 no Smith 39 Lawrence 34 Brook 32 Asitha 2-25 Prabath 2-98
England win by 5 wickets
Target 205 runs

Good to see England win a bit ugly for a change. Root played the perfect knock for the situation. Got to guts it out sometimes.

Mark Wood has ben ruled out of the remainder of the series. Leicestershire's left-arm pace bowler Josh Hull has been added to the squad, although Ollie Stone will more than likely replace Wood in the starting XI at Lords on Thursday. The 20 year old Hull is 6 ft 7 in & has been picked for his raw talent rather than his record, in first class cricket he has 16 wickets at 62.75 & only 2 in 3 Division 2 Championship games this year. He sparked interest from England after playing his part in Leicestershire One Day Cup win last year. He made his debut in the Hundred this year & had 5 wickets in the match for England Lions in the victory over Sri Lanka in their warm-up game. Capable of hitting 90mph he is one for the future.

If anything Wood most likely will rest up for the rest of the season, I doubt he'd want to risk further injury and miss out on the winter tour.

I thought Root played superbly andI think it was a captain's innings more than anything. I do feel there are times when we need someone to take the run chase by the scruff of the neck and stick around. Root defintely picked his shoots well.

I'd like to see Hull if not given a chance at Lord's then probably at the Oval, but if he is selected for Thursday, I think it's more likely he'd be making use of the Nursery end slope to aid his pace. I wonder if Jimmy knows how good he is. Let's hope the forecast is good as they say it is.

If only Jofra Archer was available this year.

His recovery plan sees him back on test duty next year.

^^ They are being very cautious with Jofra & rightly so after so little cricket in recent times. His workload was even managed in the Hundred comp, he was rested for 2 group games which is bizarre given you only bowl a maximum of 20 balls.
Lessons have been learned I doubt that he will ever bowl 42 overs in an innings again which happened in New Zealand, that signalled the start of his injuries with an elbow op followed by a stress fracture of the back.
I imagine they will be hoping that he can play some part in next summer home series against India with a view to take him to Australia at the end of that year.

I remember the injury that Gladstone Small had which ended his career, although that was probably totally different circumstances compared to what happened to Jofra, but probably reading about Gladstone's injury sort of highlighted to me, the stresses fast bowlers put their bodies through, just to find that extra yard of pace, and Small certainly looked every inch one of the best fast bowlers we had at that particular time. It only takes a split second moment for that to fall apart. I think that has been one of the most horrific cricket injuries to a fast bowler I've seen

I do hope Jofra's injuries will be fully behind him next year, and just hope Woood recovers well.

As is usually the case, England have named their starting XI with just the one change Stone coming in for Wood. Another bowler dogged by injuries & has played just 3 Tests after making his debut in 2019. He has stayed fit this year after missing most of last season, his first class stats are poor for Notts but that isn't always a key factor when England select players.

England v Sri Lanka 2nd Test - Lords Day 1 Close
Toss - Sri Lanka elected to field
England 358-7 (88 overs) Root 143 Atkinson 74 no Duckett 40 Brook 33 Kumara 2-75 Rathnayake 2-80 Asitha Fernando 2-84