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 He has been replaced by Kumara, not Rajitha.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.

Duty281 wrote:Century for Atkinson. Goodness, that's unexpected!

Well batted Gus! That is now Broad, Woakes and Atkinson who have their only Test 100s at Lord’s- must be something bowlers batting there!

Unexpected but very useful. Both for this match and also the batting ability he's shown in general.

A few of the talented bowlers coming through are proper tailenders judging by their records and what I've seen of them. Bashir. Pennington. Josh Hull. Sam Cook. John Turner. Atkinson can clearly bat though. Stone seems to have improved a lot recently judging by his county returns. Potts isn't a rabbit. Useful stuff. Especially if Woakes can shift back to 8 for the India series. Suddenly it's looking like a strong tail with Woakes at 8 and Atkinson at 9.

Atkinson finally goes. Yet another useful little partnership there has pushed them up to 420 though. It's very flat pitch that England's batters mostly failed to cash in on. I think I'd still take runs on the board new they are comfortably up over 400 though.

What an innings from Atkinson that is a huge bonus for the future when woakes calls it a day Atkinson at 8 is good....still under par score I think though it's an absolute road

It's an absolute road but the awful pitches at Lords recently have generally offered variable up and down bounce as the game goes on if there's anything at all for the bowlers. I do feel England's 4-man seam attack with the extra pace of Atkinson and Stone might be better set to take advantage of that as the Test wears on. I expect we'll find out soon enough.

I'll be really interested to see what sort of paces post injury Stone reaches.

Brilliant century for Atkinson, what it means for the future is impossible to say at the moment. I expected Woakes to really push on in 2017 after his century but it didn't really happen, his average of 27 is swayed by a fairly high proportion of not outs.

Well that was a fun little session for England...useful 69 runs in 14 overs : reckon that is a decent score , even on this flat wicket.

Top knock from Atkinson Wasted no time going through 80s and 90s...though must be said Sri Lanka gifted him some right old rubbish to collect boundaries without risk : why on earth AM Fernando didn't start the day's bowling is beyond me ! Glad to see he was also rewarded with a five wicket haul at the end : he earned it.

427 : would certainly have taken that around tea yesterday. Now we will see how Sri Lanka handle the bat - and what the England seamers can do while the ball is new and hard.

Not a particular good morning from Sri Lanka. Only 10% of balls or so hitting the stumps. They didn't look refreshed from yesterday's endeavours.

427's a good score, but it should be hard graft to take twenty wickets on this.

That is the worst review I have ever seen in my life. What the actual f**k?

At least Atkinson's century wasn't ruled out in a pretty ordinary lbw decision. Seems a touch below par but from where England were they've rather gotten out of jail.

Blimey...that is the absolute worst fielding side review I have ever seen !

Is Broad back in the team?

Keeper should be going for that. Root is expecting him to and holds back in his own effort.

Definitely keepers there. It's to Smith's right and he's got the gloves. By and large it's easier to go to your outside hand if you're in the cordon. That's especially so if it's a RHB though as your outside hand is then your right.

I think that and the missed stumping last Test are Smith's only blemishes so far though? He's mostly been assured with the gloves.

The review was just bizarre. Root was absolutely convinced!

Madushka chops on. He might not play the third test? Three low scores so far.

Nissanka back in test cricket with a tricky ten or so minutes before lunch.

Zaltz on TMS wrote:This is Olly Stone's fourth Test and each one has been against different opposition. He is only the third England Test player to do that.

The other two were Brian Close and Eric Russell.

A typically Zaltzman fact. Utterly meaningless, yet somehow interesting.

This might be an odd thing to bring up after Lawrence has nearly done something sublime at short leg, but, isn't Ollie Pope our best short leg fielder by a distance? It feels a bit like when Alastair Cook started doing short leg instead of Ian Bell at one point because Cook was the junior player, even though Bell was by a distance the best short leg in the XI!

Two chop-ons and England are comfortably ahead at lunch on day two. Nice one for Olly Stone to get before the break. Woakes has bowled very well.

One for the mini-session... good little spell from Woakes.

Scratch that ! Stone strikes on the brink of lunch ! Karunaratne dragged that one on from a fair way but Stone won't care. Sri Lanka in the familiar position of two down for next to nothing. England walk off smiling...

Two in the over for Stone, either side of lunch. Nissanka falling into a quite obvious trap. Someone's enjoying their return to test cricket, and it isn't him!

35/3.

Well placed field , eh ? Two in the over from Stone - either side of lunch ; and Sri Lanka are reeling at 35/3 ...

Gorgeous one from Potts to break the partnership.

Oh that's a lovely piece of bowling from Potts ! Matthews done like s kipper... 83/4

Was a good partnership but done now and tourists in deep trouble. Potts bowling really well here.

And two in the over ! Easy for Brook at slip and De Silva gone for none...

Potts 2/2...

Folding up here...now Chandimal finds Lawrence at square leg...nice catch and Atkinson has one to leave them staggering at 87/6...

All going well for England.

Unlike the earlier chance , Smith went quickly diving in front of slip to catch Rathnayake...reckon he was caught a bit on the wrong foot with the early one but no mistake this time...118/7 .

Pope rotating his four pace men and all taking their opportunities. This innings looks to be wrapping up rather swiftly...

All a bit sorry from Sri Lanka, to be honest, but nice bowling from England. Still confused at Kamindu's presence at 7!

Duty281 wrote:All a bit sorry from Sri Lanka, to be honest, but nice bowling from England. Still confused at Kamindu's presence at 7!

Me too ! He has looked so much more solid than most of those above him. He's still new to Tests - but has an impressive batting record and still has only once batted higher than seven. The odd thing is he's supposed to be an allrounder but hardly bowls...

Don't think they are getting the best use out of him.

Kamindu playing soundly with a patient 32. Jayasuriya a bit less secure but hanging in at 151/7

No joy for Bashir yet : but with the odd ball keeping a bit low he might fancy some success as this game proceeds. Pace men continue to take turns so we are still looking at overtime tonight

And right on cue , Bashir outfoxes Jayasuriya with one that dips on him and beats his attempt to come down the pitch...excellent bowling. 153/8 and I reckon Kamindu is going to run out of partners...

Kamindu still battling away with a resolute fifty.

All gone a bit off for England as they try the old short ball stuff again.. Root amazingly dropping an outfield catch and Kamindu bombarding the Members

Maybe back to basics , chaps ?

Or just wait for someone to run them self out

Ha . Run out... Pope took an age to throw ... but he hit the target. One way to get the wicket...

Kumara departs for an honourable duck - at least undefeated by a bowler l

44 run stand ...all scored by one player !

They won't be enforcing the follow on anyway. Maybe that top three will manage to last to the close , once this last wicket falls ?...
Which it has as Kamindu holes out for 74.

Enough for me for tonight.. Over to Duckett and Lawrence...and pad up the Nighthawk

Bit of work for Ian Bell to do in his job as batting coach. Only Kamindu showing his stuff - and he should be up at 3/4.

Surely the noise has come before the ball hits the bat there on ultra edge?

Another good day at Lord's which unlike Day 1 was almost full.

Atkinson looked top notch with the bat. What a setting for a maiden hundred. You feel with this England side, albeit against poor opposition this summer, that someone will come to the fore.

Must say I thought SL, with some experienced batters, would make a better fist of it. Good for the Day 3 spectators that the tailend resistance meant England didn't enforce the follow-on.

Drop in Lankan level has touched West Indian proportions puncturing any competitive interest totally.
Will come back to this test if by an extraordinary rise of gumption Lanka can get to 200-1 type platform chasing 550.

Let's see if Pak can put up a stellar show in the other test to restore lost national pride in a curtailed 4 day game.

Didn't stay up for the England second innings but I see Dan Lawrence got a somewhat controversial drs against him ? When you are not in great form nothing goes your way , eh...

Have to give Pope marks for not using a night watchman , given his own batting struggles of late

Match looks a matter of time now so day three might be a bit of a borefest with cheap second innings runs for anyone who wants them and not much tension. Friday really not a good day for Sri Lanka ; and predictions from some on here they might win a Test are looking very long odds.

Atkinson's hundred the big news of the day. He really did play well , albeit against some uninspired bowling late in the innings. Not getting too carried away yet (Overton against NZ two years ago was probably harder earned , for example) but it does boost his overall credentials. The slightly awkward thing is that it looks as if he's finding the stress of the Test workload in his bowling as he is noticeably down on pace and in an ideal world might be due for a rotational rest for match three ... unlikely after a Test hundred ! Need him fit and rested for some flat decks in Pakistan...

Was a tough DRS call against Lawrence. Felt it should have stayed with the on field call of not out because there was nothing conclusive. He'll be immensely frustrated. He won't get many chances to make a case for permanent inclusion.

Pope playing utterly stupid cricket. Good chance to make cheap runs against a demoralised SL team and he throws it away.

That's one of the dumbest dismissals i've seen for a long time.

Pope having a bit of a horror series with the bat. And once again England's top three leaving all the work to the middle order- albeit with a bit of a cushion this time.

England playing like they want to declare in the afternoon...or maybe at lunch?

Harry Brook got lucky then ! England really should be 4 down. Looks as if he's taken on the job of Bazballing the lead to 400 as quickly as possible in case of time being lost to weather ?

No rain forecast for the remainder of the test! Maybe England have got confused and they think today is day four?

Lead beyond 350 now.

Second time around Madushka takes the chance and Brook is on his way...358 on but if they want 500 someone needs to settle in

As long as there is a hole in my @r$e, Ollie Pope is not an international test number 3 batsman.

390 ahead at lunch. Sri Lanka actually had a good session there but were already so far behind it won't help them much. Think England will want to bat another hour or so , throwing the bat , and get at Sri Lanka a bit before tea. Or alternatively look to declare shortly after the tea break.