England v Sri Lanka - Test Match Series

Sri Lanka have made 2 changes Nissanka comes in for Kusal Mendis & Kumara replaceds Vishwa Fernando.

A litany of self inflicted dismissals for England today. Aggressive and assertive yes.
Stupidly kamikaze no.

Thankfully Root and Atkinson made scores to get em off the hook.

(29-08-2024 06:17 )Boomerangutangangbang Wrote:  England v Sri Lanka 2nd Test - Lords Day 2 Close
Toss - Sri Lanka elected to field
England 427 (102 overs) Root 143 Atkinson 118 Duckett 40 Brook 33 Kumara 2-101 Rathnayake 2-89 Asitha Fernando 5-102
Sri Lanka 196 (55.33 overs) Kamindu 74 Chandimal 23 Mathews 22 Potts 2-19 Atkinson 2-40Woakes 2-21 Stone 2-70
England 25-1 (7 overs)
England lead by 256

It was a bad day for the Sri Lankan's.
You win the toss and chose to bowl and your then expected to get the opposition out cheaply.

For a good start they slowly chipped away at the England batting only to be clobbered by Joe Root and Gus Atkinson.
Before this match I believe that Atkinson's average was 16, well it's not now.

(30-08-2024 11:16 )Boomerangutangangbang Wrote:  

(29-08-2024 06:17 )Boomerangutangangbang Wrote:  England v Sri Lanka 2nd Test - Lords Day 3 Close
Toss - Sri Lanka elected to field
England 427 (102 overs) Root 143 Atkinson 118 Duckett 40 Brook 33 Kumara 2-101 Rathnayake 2-89 Asitha Fernando 5-102
Sri Lanka 196 (55.33 overs) Kamindu 74 Chandimal 23 Mathews 22 Potts 2-19 Atkinson 2-40 Woakes 2-21 Stone 2-70
England 251-4 (54.3 overs) Root 103 Brook 37 Duckett 24 Smith 25 Asitha 3-52 Kumara 3-53 Rathnayake 2-36 Prabath 2-105
Sri Lanka 53-2 (20 overs) Karunaratne 23 no
Target 483 Sri Lanka need 430

Root with a double century and has become the player with the most centuries for England.
Yet his average hasn't risen 1%, he's currently on 50.93.

He's got a way to go before he get to 60.73. which was the average of fellow Yorkie Herbert Sutcliffe. Bradman had an average of 99.94, in his last test his average was 101.39 until he got a 2nd ball duck. And he never batted in the 2nd innings.

I was surprised that Root had never achieved centuries in both innings of a Test Match, although I couldn't remember it happening.
This mornings chat on Sky has pointed out that he hasn't scored a hundred in an away Ashes Test. I he he can tick that box in 2025.
Atkinson get on the Lords honours boards with 5 for & ten wickets in a match against West Indies, then again for his batting with a class century.
The list of star batsmen to have never scored a century at Lords includes Tendulkar, Lara, Ponting, Kallis & Kohli.

(31-08-2024 12:04 )Boomerangutangangbang Wrote:  

(30-08-2024 11:16 )Boomerangutangangbang Wrote:  

(29-08-2024 06:17 )Boomerangutangangbang Wrote:  England v Sri Lanka 2nd Test - Lords Day 4 Close
Toss - Sri Lanka elected to field
England 427 (102 overs) Root 143 Atkinson 118 Duckett 40 Brook 33 Kumara 2-101 Rathnayake 2-89 Asitha Fernando 5-102
Sri Lanka 196 (55.33 overs) Kamindu 74 Chandimal 23 Mathews 22 Potts 2-19 Atkinson 2-40 Woakes 2-21 Stone 2-70
England 251-4 (54.3 overs) Root 103 Brook 37 Duckett 24 Smith 25 Asitha 3-52 Kumara 3-53 Rathnayake 2-36 Prabath 2-105
Sri Lanka 292 (86.4 overs) Chandimal 58 Karunaratne 55 Dhananjaya 50 Rathnayake 43 Mathews 36 Atkinson 5-62 Woakes 2-46 Stone 2-56
Target 483 England won by 190 runs

England v Sri Lanka 3rd Test - The Oval Day 1Close
Toss - Sri Lanka elected to field
England 221-3 (44.1 overs) Pope 103 no Duckett 86 Kumara 2-81

Perhaps with the series already won it has made the decision to give Josh Hull his Test Match debut. That change may still have happened, Potts has actually improved over his 2 matches, this may have more to do with an Oval pitch which usually offers decent pace & bounce, a 6 ft 9 inch left arm pace bowler should be a better fit for the surface. Lately England debuts have generally gone well, we may have to show more patience with Hull, he has all the attributes & not short on skill, but is raw & a bit inconsistent. He has the ability to bowl around 90 mph but he seems to have natural variation with the ball often coming out in the low 80's. Excited to see how he goes.