Key events
44th over: England 221-3 (Pope 103, Brook 8) And Englandâs run rate goes above five.
A hundred to Ollie Pope!
Pope, facing his 100th ball, comes down the track to Asithat, trying to engineer a flick for four, but the ball thuds into the pad. Then he gets a wide one outside off and carves it for two to reach 99. In comes the field, and Pope square-drives for four to reach his first Test hundred on his home ground. He punches the air and the Oval rises to him. After four failures in his first two games as stand-in captain, that is a triumph.
42nd over: England 214-3 (Pope 97, Brook 7) This England donât have much time for old adages, but they do seem to believe in âIf youâre going to flash, flash hard.â Brook goes down the track to Asitha Fernando, flashes hard and gets his first four, off the edge. Pope survives a rather random review for caught behind down the leg side. He celebrates by pulling the next ball for four to go into the 90s. Now that he has finally got some runs as captain, they should be the nerveless 90s, and as I type that, Pope plays a square drive for four, one of his signature shots. But then he takes a blow on the underside of his right elbow â not for the first time today, or even the second. Heâs able to continue, but wisely takes a couple of deliveries to compose himself.
Englandâs run rate today is 4.99. They could finish this innings with anything from 520 to 320.
41st over: England 200-3 (Pope 89, Brook 1) Ollie Pope comes out flirting. Facing Kumara, he flashes outside off yet again, just manages to elude gully, and picks up four more. Brook finally gets off the mark with a square force for a single, less frenetic than the shots he played before tea. That brings up Englandâs 200. Theyâve gone at almost five an over, even after that stodgy spell when Root was batting.
Tea! And it’s England’s afternoon
40th over: England 194-3 (Pope 84, Brook 0) Pope continues on his merry way, clipping Asitha Fernando for three. Asitha bounces back by beating Brook outside off. And thatâs tea.
The bowlers have had their moments, but in âthe juiciest of conditionsâ as Mike Atherton called them a while ago, England have been startlingly aggressive, even by their standards, and it has largely worked. Ben Duckett lived by the ramp and died by the ramp on his way to a rollicking 86. Ollie Pope, who made it to 20 for the first time as stand-in captain, has ridden his luck and should now reach the hundred that eluded Duckett. Time for a hot beverage.
39th over: England 191-3 (Pope 80, Brook 0) As so often at Lordâs last week, a bowling change from Dhananjaya de Silva did the trick. He took Mathews off and turned back to Kumara, whose extra pace and bounce lured Root into an unRootish shot â half pull, half flick, strangely lackadaisical. It yielded only a top edge that went straight to Vishwa Fernando, who just had to keep calm and cling on.
Harry Brook, who may have been champing at the bit, goes down the track to his second ball, then steps away from the off stump and aims an exuberant hook into thin air. There are three minutes to go until tea.
WICKET! Root c V Fernando b Kumara 13 (England 191-3)
Caught at fine leg!
38th over: England 190-2 (Pope 80, Root 13) Pope, tiring of all these dots, plays that flash over the slips again and picks up four more. Then he takes a single to bring up the fifty partnership. After a rip-roaring start, itâs been sober stuff, almost teetotal.
37th over: England 185-2 (Pope 75, Root 13) Mathews keeps up the vibe by going for just three. Rootâs 13 has occupied 45 balls, as if heâs playing himself out of form.
36th over: England 182-2 (Pope 74, Root 11) Rathnayakeâs fine spell comes to an end, which is a surprise, but Asitha keeps up the good work by conceding only a single. Are Sri Lanka fighting back here?
35th over: England 181-2 (Pope 73, Root 11) Popeâs first-class average at the Oval, a stat-box tells us, is now 82 â the highest in the 21st century by any player who has played much at any ground in the world. You wouldnât know it from his latest move, a late dab at Mathews that flies between first slip and third at catchable height and runs away for four. There is no second slip, so it may have been deliberate, but it didnât look it.
34th over: England 172-2 (Pope 64, Root 11) You wait hours for a maiden and then two come at once. Rathnayake, bowling to Root, extends his excellent spell (5-2-9-1).
Angelo Mathews is having a bowl!
33rd over: England 172-2 (Pope 64, Root 11) Once an allrounder, Angelo Mathews has bowled only 20 overs in Tests in the past seven years. And here he is, trundling in! As Sri Lankaâs fifth seamer, he doesnât bring a lot of pace to the party. The keeper could be standing up, surely. But Mathews knows where the stumps are and his comeback over goes for just two singles.
A maiden!
32nd over: England 170-2 (Pope 63, Root 10) Rathnayake, bowling to Root, doesnât trouble him so much â but he does manage a maiden, the second of the day.
âDuckett leaves so many runs out there,â says Kevin Wilson. âHe could easily be averaging another five runs per innings. Itâs to his, and Bazballâs credit, I suppose, that he never bunkers down when heâs eyeing up a hundred. He keeps trying his luck and if he falls for 80 or 90, so be it. Itâs a remarkably selfless way to bat. Heâs not a man worried about his own personal milestones.â True.
Just before Duckett was out, when he was ramping all over the place, Ricky Ponting said: âIt takes a lot of courage to bat like that.â
31st over: England 170-2 (Pope 63, Root 10) As Rathnayake reaches a new peak in his short Test career, Vishwa Fernando just needs to keep the pressure on the batters, but he canât manage it. He sprays the ball wide of off, then wide of leg. I suppose itâs one way of keeping the runs down.
30th over: England 168-2 (Pope 62, Root 9) Rathnayake bowls a shocker of a ball to Pope, who slaps it away for four. But then he raises his game for Root, beating him with a ripper, then a lovely outswinger, and another! One day he will be able to tell his grandchildren, âI beat Joe Root three times in an over.â
âWhy are OBO writers so poor at maths?â asks Nick Terdre. âIn his exemplary over (25th), Duckett reportedly scored 6+3+6+2=17. If the score really did advance by 16, itâs not just the maths thatâs wrong. Kepp up the good work!â
Jesus, Nick. Bazball, admirable as it is, has made our job quite a bit harder. This fabulous format was designed in the days when every over in Test cricket contained, on average, four dots. Those days are now history. Almost every move Duckett made in that over demanded a description, and my eye was on the prose, not the maths. So yes, I have to plead guilty to mistaking a two for a three., but I hope you will see that there were mitigating circumstances.
29th over: England 163-2 (Pope 57, Root 9) Vishwa Fernando replaces Kumara and returns from the doghouse. Root clips for two and pushes into the covers for a single. Pope adds a single of his own. The hundred that Duckett missed out on is now beckoning to Pope.
28th over: England 159-2 (Pope 56, Root 6) Maybe the batters had a cup of camomile, because this over is decidedly calmer. Just a single from Root and a two from Pope, both flicked to leg off Rathnayake. The scoring rate for this partnership plummets to 9.5 an over.
And that was drinks. Make mine a double.
Fifty to Pope!
27th over: England 156-2 (Pope 54, Root 5) You are the England captain. Youâve just seen your partner get out to a flash shot. So what do you do? You play one yourself! Pope goes for an expansive hook and gets a top edge that sails over the keeper for six. Next ball, he cuts for what should be a single, maybe two, but the fielder at wide third man can only deflect it into the sponge. Thatâs 50 to Pope, who had had plenty of luck but ridden it in some style.
Joe Root, watching all this, will surely bring some sobr â no, he begins with an airy glance that just eludes the man at short fine leg. Thatâs another 16 off the over. Even by Englandâs standards, the last 15 minutes have jumped the shark.
26th over: England 140-2 (Pope 43, Root 0) The batters had seen off the dangerous Asitha, whose figures of 9-0-33-0 didnât do him justice. On came the less dangerous Rathnayake â but he managed one dot to Duckett, which was enough to prod him into yet another ramp. And this time he could only manage a limp chip, easily snaffled by the keeper. What a shame.
WICKET! Duckett c Chandimal b Rathnayake 86 (England 140-2)
Live by the ramp, die by the ramp!
25th over: England 139-1 (Duckett 86, Pope 42) You are a Test opener. You have just messed up a ramp shot and got a streaky four for it. What do you do? You go again! Duckett plays a ramp for six, then a ramp at thin air (which brings an appeal for caught behind), a cut for three, and an upper-cut for six more, followed by another one for two. Then heâs thumped on the back thigh and the Sri Lankans review for LBW. Itâs closer than it looked ⦠itâs umpireâs call! Brushing the top of off. And thatâs 16 off the over.
If anyone ever asks you what Bazball is, show them these six balls. Theyâll be all over social media in a minute.
24th over: England 123-1 (Duckett 70, Pope 42) Another false shot for Englandâs collection: Duckett miscues a pull that goes perilously close to mid-on. Itâs another good over from Asitha, who doesnât deserve his zero in the wickets column.
23rd over: England 119-1 (Duckett 67, Pope 41) âI see all those edges,â Duckett says to Pope, âand I raise you a wonky ramp.â Facing the pacy Kumara, he goes outside off, trying to lift the ball over an invisible leg slip, but ends up sending it over the actual slips.
âOK,â says Pope. âI canât compete with that.â So he plays a dreamy on-drive, like a mini Viv Richards.
22nd over: England 109-1 (Duckett 62, Pope 36) Pope takes ten off this over, but heâs riding his luck. Facing Asitha, he flashes hard and sends a thick edge over gully for four. A less frenetic shot, a comfy tuck for two, is followed by another false one as Pope inside-edges onto the pads. Then he tries to leave the ball outside off and picks up two more by accident. Finally thereâs another tuck for two. If he could have just got out as well, that would have been Ollie Popeâs Test career in a nutshell.
21st over: England 99-1 (Duckett 62, Pope 26) Pope, duly bandaged, gets up the other end with a leg glance. Kumara then beats Duckett with some movement off the seam. Duckett waves his hand to tell the crowd what happened, then watches the ball harder and squirts a similar ball to third man for two.
Thereâs a pause as Pope needs treatment for a cut on the underside of the elbow. Kumara came on and drew blood with his first ball as Pope propped forward when he might have gone back. Heâs fine, just needs a bandage. Nasser Hussain remembers that the same thing used to happen to Mark Ramprakash, who took to wearing an arm guard in an unorthodox position.
20th over: England 96-1 (Duckett 60, Pope 25) A much better over from Asitha to Pope â line and length, consistency and movement. The only run comes off the last ball and itâs an inside edge to fine leg.
Richard OâHagan is back with a good spot. âPopeâs highest score as England captain.â
19th over: England 95-1 (Duckett 60, Pope 24) Duckett, facing Vishwa, shows that even with a sweeper out he can still find the Toblerone if you give him something to cut. He now has the highest score in the series by a player in the top three on either side. And thatâs the fifty partnership off just 58 balls.