England's Summer of Cricket 2024

First topic message reminder :

Sri Lanka: 1 Dimuth Karunaratne, 2 Nishan Madushka, 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

Sri Lanka have confirmed their team. Unsurprisingly, V Fernando has been dropped after a lacklustre first game. He has been replaced by Kumara, not Rajitha. Kusal Mendis has also been replaced at 3, with Nissanka coming in to replace him. It will be Nissanka's first test in two years. His FC average is 60, but his test average is fractionally below 40.

Expected to be a very good batting wicket, and the weather is excellent for the first four days, but Monday has some rain around if we get that far. Sri Lanka have never won a test at Lord's, but they've managed to draw the last five.

Rather tossed it in this morning I see. Seemed a more measured approach this summer so far but last day of school apparently

All a bit careless today. I get they want to get on with it (weather concerns) but still not very impressive. Credit to Sri Lanka for much better control today though. Lop sided scorecard: two fellows made 240 and everyone else 85 - none passing 20.

If the ball does as much after lunch I think Sri Lanka will find it tough going.

Yeah, should be very good bowling conditions this afternoon for England's quartet of seamers.

Hull can't really ask for much better on his debut!

Bit of a ragged start from England after lunch, but SL gift a wicket through a daft run.

Now the umpires are desperate to take the players off.

Woakes is bowling spin now?

Umpires embarrassing themselves and the sport again here

Daft bit of running undoes the good Sri Lanka start with the bat...Good bit of fielding from Stone , mind.

Seen everything now ! At least Woakes gets to try out his finger spin...

Good Golly I'm Olly wrote:Umpires embarrassing themselves and the sport again here

Three minutes later it’s apparently fine for Atkinson to bowl seam. Get a bloody grip umps

Ollie Robinson needs to be in the team for overs like that

Comical. Can't see why he needed to try and spin it...just lob it down slowly , surely ?

And now Atkinson is OK to go full blast ? This is just getting silly...

Has been a fair bit of rubbish served up in the first 11 overs, but Woakes gets Kusal nonetheless. Not a happy return for him.

Time for Josh Hull.

Was about to post about Woakes and uncharacteristic loose bowling ...when bingo ! Hull now...not a bad time to come on.

Hull gets his first thanks to a brilliant diving catch from Woakes. That's the main man Nissanka gone.

91/4, two new bats at the crease. England will hope to get on a proper roll if the umpires allow them!

Oh that's a brilliant catch by Woakes to give Hull his first wicket ! The dangerous Nissanka too , after a fine fast 64.

That wicket might settle the young fellow down a bit :think he's been trying too hard so far and hasn't really been getting enough in the danger area... but hey , one already.

Meanwhile Stone has another and suddenly Sri Lanka are in heaps of strife...

But with five out , the tourists' best bat is in now ... They will be avoiding the follow on anyway; but a lot of work to get remotely close to England. Not sue how much play we will see after tea as these umpires look very twitchy about their light meters.

It really is ridiculous we're still at a point where the umpires can decide it's a bit dark and that's now a standing mark. Set a benchmark for light that applies everywhere if it's that crucial

Don't think we will see much more today...all spin after tea and Dan Lawrence is preferred to Woakes the Spinner

That is a village drop by Hull

This is just gifting Sri Lanka runs...OK one (very bad !) drop ; but still...at some point you have to say enough and come back tomorrow to go for a decent lead...

I think after yesterday they pretty much have to do this. Though not sure I'd watch this if it was in my own back garden, let alone pay for it. No way would they do this if the series was still live

Pretty rubbish day from England. The abject batting in the morning, then in the bowling only Olly Stone really impressing. Atkinson improved in his second spell at least. Then England persevered with some ordinary spin bowling well past the point of it being any use, allowing SL to clock up some fairly easy runs, save for the simple drop.

Sri Lanka's best bats this series have been hidden away at 6 and 7. Quite bizarre. We'll see if they can get their side into a small lead tomorrow, or maybe Monday, with rain forecast for Sunday.

Saw scorecards that Eng lost last 6 for 30 odd thereby failing to shut the door.
Although Lanka must have bowled badly in seaming conditions to let Eng get to 295-4.
Then Eng let 6th wkt score 120 ish easy runs

Watched a bit of last  session and heard commentators says you have to stay on the field to win.
That's valid only if this was last session of the game
Here it's giving too many easy runs & allowing SL close the gap. Stop now and they might nick one first over tomm morning and SL lower order can fall in next 8 overs.

Also heard one say " they should keep playing because spectators have paid to watch"
It's ridiculous like that statement in defeat,  we play to entertain.
Test match or for that matter in any international format there is no reason to give 1 easy run.

I think Kamindu will be eyeing another 100 and Lanka hoping to get 100 more runs from here.

Duty281 wrote:

Sri Lanka's best bats this series have been hidden away at 6 and 7. Quite bizarre. .

In English conditions Nos 6&7 look better because they come in after the new ball has routed the top order and shine / pitch has settled a bit.
That's why it's important to have batting down to no.8 atleast to put some runs to fight on....as often the top order will fall to seaming conditions

I reckon Pope (apart from wanting to avoid too much lost time in the game) must have been reluctant to be the spoilsport who deprived the crowd of late afternoon entertainment : the umpires did him and England a considerable favour in calling things off before the potential lead shrunk any further.

Can understand why they initially chose to have a go with the spinners - indeed it would have had a result except for Hull's clanger ; but it was surely obvious long before the close that continuing was getting England nowhere. Saving a few overs - maybe. But if it eventually means that a possible lead of , say , 100 is reduced to 40 ; then you have to make up those runs in your second innings ... even if that works out you really haven't gained time for a result , have you ?

Might not matter. Seamers could run through the tail once this stand is broken. But no guarantees ; and it does suggest England are treating this game with a little less intensity than is appropriate for a Test Match - which could yet come back to bite them. Hopefully the weather allows some play on day three and they can get back to proper cricket...

KP_fan wrote:

Duty281 wrote:

Sri Lanka's best bats this series have been hidden away at 6 and 7. Quite bizarre. .

In English conditions Nos 6&7 look better because they come in after the new ball has routed the top order and shine / pitch has settled a bit.
That's why it's important to have batting down to no.8 atleast to put some runs to fight on....as often the top order will fall to seaming conditions

That is a fair point , KP_fan : but even allowing for conditions sometimes easing , Kamindu and De Silva have played soundly enough that I am not sure it wouldn't have made sense to have shuffled the order a bit . May not have made much difference here ; but I do think Kamindu will find himself up to five in the near future. I mean , they call him an allrounder but it is not like he actually bowls in a Test Match...

The Ali retires from International cricket.
Was good enuf to represent Eng as a pure batter and a pure bowler.
Would have gotten much more out of him.had they given him a consistent run.
Hope he gets to Retire in Peace and is not recalled thru SMS es

Moeen has called time on his International career - not totally unexpected. He has served England very well in all formats for a number of years ; even coming back to the Test scene somewhat against his own inclinations when requested : but he has seemed a little conflicted about his desire to persist for some time. Makes good sense for him to enjoy his remaining years of high level cricket playing the competitions he wants to.

For some reason he has often attracted more criticism - and less praise - than his efforts for England have rightly earned. But I reckon he leaves with the respect and gratitude of most England fans

Thank goodness for that. Most overrated English cricketer ever seen. This will put an end to the weird hold he held over the powers that be, whether it was picking him for the Australia tests in 2023 when he was nowhere near test standard, or bizarrely bumped up to 3/4 in the batting order, ahead of Brook, for the most recent T20 World Cup which cost England immensely.

As for today, looks like a dry, but dark, morning, before rain and bad light closes in in the afternoon.

Very good short ball from Hull to remove Dhananjaya. He couldn't resist taking it on.

Hull getting the breakthrough...De Silva well caught by Bashir at long leg.
Probably fair to say the debut wicket yesterday was a bit of a gift : but that was good use of the short ball....good effort from the young man.

Oh, the rain arrives early.

Back on and Woakes removes the other dangerman with a bit of away movement. Root safely grabs this one!

Hopefully England wrap the tail up pronto.

Definition of bad cricket all round...rank full toss , popped straight to a fielder...and dropped

Hull has looked much better today , less of the understandable nerves showing. That height more than actual pace makes for a handy weapon so will be interesting to see how he fares as the game goes on. One more over for now anyway...chance to bag a rabbit or two ? Not that Rathnayake is a bunny...

Stone with the ninth. He's bowled very well in this innings. England much more on the ball today: should be a decent lead , if not as many as it would have been but for overdoing the spin option last night. Back to spin now though as they don't want to overbowl Hull....

Lead of 62. Now have to juggle settjng a target against how much time will be lost from the remaining days. Don't want to go silly and make a mess of the innings so hope they're a bit more thoughtful than yesterday morning...

All wrapped up. Much better intensity from England this morning, save for Stone's drop which cost Hull a chance of a debut five-fer.

Lead of 62 to build on.

Duckett hone early ...looks as if they intend to go ballistic from the off and try to have Sri Lanka batting again with plenty of time to take ten wickets no matter how much rain intervenes. Given the dire forecast for this afternoon one can hardly blame them : but I hope the execution is better than Saturday mornings !

England playing like idiots again.

Duckett with a terrible dismissal. Lawrence has managed a particularly ugly form of hack and slash to scrape his way into the 20s. And Kumara manages to knock Pope over right before lunch. Nice ball.

Net 97/2 and SL not out of it.

Ah good, two balls after lunch and the players are off for rain.

I love this game.

Short post-lunch session : two balls and the rain comes down : rotten timing. Can't trust this weather - sunshine one moment - tears the next. Will give it a bit longer in hopes...

Just having a look at the stats for this summer - and whilst Atkinson has obviously been a huge success, he has still gone at 4.13 an over.

Woakes is 2.77, Wood 3.23 and Potts 3.05. Stone is up at nearly 5s in his two games so far.

Just an area of concern heading into a Pakistan series where he surely plays and you would expect the wickets to be flat - not that they seemed that way vs Bangladesh.

I have noted Atkinson's lack of control amongst his (plenty of!) wickets. He regularly serves up boundary balls.

Again, this is an element that doesn't matter too much when playing SL or the West Indies, but can be costly against Australia or India.

Control is the area in which England most miss Anderson. Not much to do about it as they have what they have to work with : just have to hope the strike rates keep ahead of the run rates - if you know what I mean.

Delighted with Atkinson's form this season ; but won't get too carried away until we see him against tougher opposition in different conditions. For now I am just happy that they have covered the loss of two real greats from the pace attack as well as they have.

Lawrence somehow not bowled after leaving all three stumps exposed and missing with a hopeless flick. This is one of the worst 22s ever seen in the test game!

Lawrence's hack and slash epic ends on 35. I doubt he'll ever bat again in test cricket, so I hope he had fun on that lively jaunt.

England nowhere near secure as Brook plays and misses at his first ball.

Just as it appeared Lawrence had got himself into some form with a couple of good forcing strokes he tries one too many extravagant swipes and departs to leave England a rather shaky virtual 118/3...

Might need to dial it back a bit for a while , eh ?

An unsuccessful adventure as an opener for Lawrence. Unsurprisingly really. It doesn't suit his strengths and definitely exposes the weaknesses. I'd be surprised if he misses out on the Pakistan tour as a potential lower middle order player who can bowl some spin though. Which is what he should be looked at as. Jacks and Livi both played that role the last time they were in Pakistan.

Sri Lanka's bowling definitely on top and another bowling change has brought a huge reward. Root gone!

This is a bit of trouble now. One away from Woakes.

Duty281 wrote:I have noted Atkinson's lack of control amongst his (plenty of!) wickets. He regularly serves up boundary balls.

Again, this is an element that doesn't matter too much when playing SL or the West Indies, but can be costly against Australia or India.

That's not uncommon at all for younger bowlers to be fair. Broad was far less accurate early on. Similar with Woakes before he improved his fitness and added a bit of pace, I felt early Woakes tended to bowl very full quite often. Finn could be all over the shop whilst taking wickets. Harmison was all over the shop across his career! The quicker the bowler, the more this tends to be the case early on I think.

Anderson is a bit different given he started as an pace bowler who swung it, became a swing bowler who could seam it, then a wobble seam bowler who could swing it. Quite the career arc. Another one who added control through his career though, even if Anderson is somewhat unique in this regard.

I can see Atkinson just improving with experience. He's largely a change bowler for Surrey, which is a reason I like him so much. England are using him as a opening bowler in order to get more seamers in their attack who can also bowl with the older ball, which I also really like. He's had a brilliant first summer all considered.