England v Sri Lanka - Test Match Series

Ahead of the 1st Test at Old Trafford the latest news is that Crawley will miss all 3 matches due to the finger injury he sustained in the last match. Lawrence is expected to open, with Jordan Cox added to the squad as the spare batter. Pennington has a hamstring injury with Olly Stone coming in as another bowling option.

England v Sri Lanka 1st Test - Old Trafford Day 1 Session 3
Toss 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 22-0 (4 overs)
Match Delayed By Bad Light

Teams
England - Lawrence, Duckett, Pope ©, Root, Brooks, Smith (wk). Woakes, Atkinson, Potts, Wood, Bashir
Sri Lanka - Karunaratne, Madushka, Kusal Mendis, Mathews, Chandimal (wk), Dhananjaya © Kamindu Mendis, Prabath, Asitha Fernando, Vishwa Fernando, Rathnayake

How can we lose. We have the pope as the captain.

I notice that we have brought in another bowler as a replacement for Stokes. It make the batting look light, as we have a 4 man tail.

8 overs were lost yesterday, as England & Sri Lanka bowling spinners with the floodlights on, Sri Lanka opted to introduce pace after England made a solid & relatively untroubled start, the light wasn't suitable & the umpires took the players off & the close of play was called minutes later at 6pm.

(21-08-2024 10:30 )Boomerangutangangbang Wrote:  England v Sri Lanka 1st Test - Old Trafford Day 2 Close
Toss 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 259-6 (61 overs) Root 42 Lawrence 30 Brook 56 Smith 72 no Woakes 25 Asitha 3-68 Prabath 2-58

England were made to work hard on Day 2, Sri Lanka employed some unusual defensive fields in an effort to negate the Bazball scoring rate, which worked in part as the they were pegged back from 5 an over to just above 4. Asitha was the pick of the seamers asking questions with movement on offer. Prabath Jayasuriya bowled 2 almost identical unplayable balls to dismiss Brooks & Woakes. It is a mystery why he has played only a dozen Tests at the age of 32 as he approaches 100 First Class matches with over 400 wickets.
Makeshift opener Lawrence got a start, Root looked world class as usual until he chased a ball that he misjudged after being tie-down. Brooks played a mature innings & Smith continues to impress.

(22-08-2024 10:42 )Boomerangutangangbang Wrote:  

(21-08-2024 10:30 )Boomerangutangangbang Wrote:  England v Sri Lanka 1st Test - Old Trafford Day 3 Close
Toss 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 204-6 (60 overs) Mathews 65 Kamindu 56 no Woakes 2-34
Sri Lanka lead by 82 runs

Smith out for Nelson on 111. His average is over 63.6.
Mind you Harry Brook average is current over 59.75.
But they have both only played a few tests. There with be bigger challenges to come.

Both are higher averages that Boycott, Hutton and Hobbs.

The only other current England cricketer with an average of over 50 is Root.

England in a strong position, much will depend on the Manchester weather over the next 2 days to allow enough play for a positive result.