England v Sri Lanka: second men’s cricket Test match, day one – live | England v Sri Lanka 2024

Lunch! And it’s de Silva’s morning

23rd over: England 97-3 (Root 29, Brook 9) Kumara bothers Root again, with a bouncer this time, hurrying him into a brush of the glove that could easily have brought a wicket. Brook gets a bouncer too and shows the old boy how it’s done, playing a savage pull that rings out like a gunshot and deserves more than the single it gets.

22nd over: England 94-3 (Root 28, Brook 7) Three singles off Fernando, and no more alarms.

The TMS link has come in, from Nick Kai Nielsen in Châtellerault, near Poitiers, and he even shares the recipe. “Overseas link for TMS: https://www.youtube.com/live/7Zk587xyI4o. Method: BBC cricket > Test live (their version of your sterling efforts) > link in sidebar.” Magnificent, thank you.

21st over: England 91-3 (Root 27, Brook 5) Dhananjaya de Silva does like to ring the changes. Lahiru Kamara’s reward for taking that catch is to be brought straight back into the attack, replacing the wicket-taker Jayasuriya. Root spots a half-volley and strokes a cover drive, straight out of the MCC Coaching Book (if it still exists). Ben Stokes strolls round the boundary with his pads on, looking as if he owns the place. His predecessor plays another drive for no runs as the ball thuds into the stumps at the non-striker’s end.

20th over: England 87-3 (Root 23, Brook 5) Harry Brook, facing Rathanayake, is watchful until the last ball, which he eases for four with a back-foot square drive. That was classy.

19th over: England 83-3 (Root 23, Brook 1) Seeing a spinner for the first time today, both batters were aggressive. Root played an immaculate sweep of the old-fashioned variety, but then Duckett, who usually plays it well, misjudged the reverse, didn’t get over it and sent a top edge soaring towards Kumara, who held it coolly to add to his good morning. Advantage Sri Lanka.

WICKET! Duckett c Kumara b Jayasuriya 40 (England 82-3)

18th over: England 76-2 (Duckett 39, Root 18) Rathnayake continues and Kumara, not content with bowling a fine spell, saves a run with a fearless dive as Root plays a steer down the hill. Root has slowed down after that rapid start but he’s still showing intent, standing a yard outside his crease. Rathnayake, like Kumara, gets one past his outside edge. The ball has done more since Duckett hit the lacquer off it.

17th over: England 73-2 (Duckett 38, Root 16) Kumara continues, concedes a single to each batter and beats Root again, on the outside edge this time.

“Quick message,” says Peter Gibbs from his campervan in Anglesey. “No more Oasis stuff here if that’s possible?” Ha. Can’t promise – you never know what will happen, an elderly man in a panama hat might hold up a sign saying Don’t Look Back In Anger. But I do take your point. The people have spoken.

16th over: England 71-2 (Duckett 37, Root 15) After that near-miss, Root decides to play himself in. Rathanayake strings together five dots, but then Root clips for three off a delivery that is much the same as the one that nearly got him, just not as fast.

“Thanks for the fab coverage,” says Ed Hopkinson. “Any chance of the TMS link for overseas listeners?” Hoping somebody can help.

15th over: England 68-2 (Duckett 37, Root 12) Root makes his first false move as Kumara, who has asked all the right questions, beats him on the inside edge and appeals for LBW. Paul Reiffel says not out, Sri Lanka review and it’s tight … umpire’s call, clipping the leg bail.

14th over: England 67-2 (Duckett 37, Root 11) Rathanayake returns and gives Duckett some trouble. First he fends at a lifter, finding only thin air, then he scoops the ball in the air towards cover and picks up a streaky two. But Duckett survives and, in Tests at Lord’s, he now averages 100.

13th over: England 65-2 (Duckett 35, Root 11) The first ball after drinks brings a poor shot from Duckett, wafting outside off as Kumara moves the ball away down the slope. But he gets his act together with a dab for two and a cover-drive for four, flipped with a flourish.

And here’s Kim Thonger. “Checking in from a car park in Shepton Mallet, Somerset,” he writes, “waiting my wife’s re-emergence after her audit of the inventory in a certain well-known fashion brand’s factory shop. I shan’t mention the name directly but it’s associated with marmalade. Anyway, it’s showering slightly, appropriate since we are opposite Showering’s, the makers of Babycham, the go-to drink of my early girlfriends. It was either that or a snowball in the 70s. Those were the options. End of.

“It makes me wonder whether the wonderful Wurzels ever did a version of the Oasis song you mentioned, titled Babycham Supernova? If they didn’t they should have done. And followed it with Ciderwall.”

12th over: England 58-2 (Duckett 28, Root 11) Fernando continues and so do the runs – two singles to each batter. They’re both so busy and yet so relaxed. And that’s drinks, which is Sky’s chance to torment us with that awful ad that Stuart Broad agreed to appear in in a moment of madness.

It’s been an hour of two halves – the first all England, as Duckett took charge, the second belonging to Sri Lanka as Dhananjaya de Sliva hit back with two wily bowling changes. And now Duckett and Root are threatening to take back control. Ebb and flow, you can’t beat it.

11th over: England 54-2 (Duckett 26, Root 9) It will take more than a couple of wickets to bother Ben Duckett. Facing Kumara, he plays a pull for two and a flick for a single. Root, getting forward nicely, adds a straight push for four. and a glance for another single. Between them, these two have cruised to 35 off 34 balls, while the other two batters scraped 10 off 32.

10th over: England 46-2 (Duckett 23, Root 4) Joe Root runs to the middle and clips his first ball for four. But that won’t bother the Sri Lankans too much as the past quarter of an hour. belongs to them Another bowling change, another wicket. Fernando switched ends, dropped short and lured Pope into a miscued front-foot pull. As the ball sailed into the St John’s Wood skies, Dhananjaya de Silva took charge, kept calm and sent his opposite number packing. He gets credit for both wickets and now his decision to bowl doesn’t look so silly.

WICKET! Pope c de Silva b Fernando 1 (England 42-2)

9th over: England 39-1 (Duckett 20, Pope 1) Kumara beats Pope again, cutting him in half like a magician, and then a third time, which brings a loud appeal for caught behind. Pope, as so often, is starting with a stutter, while Kumara (2-1-3-1) has started with a bang. “He was all smiles in practice,” says Mel Jones. “He’s all glares now.”

8th over: England 39-1 (Duckett 20, Pope 1) Pope copes better with Rathnayake, going back to flip a short one for a single. On the balcony, Ben Stokes keeps a beady eye on his understudy.

7th over: England 33-1 (Duckett 19, Pope 0) That was a four-card trick from Kumara, who kept angling the ball into Lawrence, then moved it away, up the slope. Lawrence didn’t help himself by going down the track, which left him with less time to adjust. And then Kumara beat Pope outside off too. In one over, he’s changed the complexion of the game.

WICKET! Lawrence c Madushka b Kumara 9 (England 33-1)

6th over: England 30-0 (Duckett 16, Lawrence 9) Rathnayake started very tidily but now the openers tuck in. Duckett clips for two and takes a leg-bye, leaving Lawrence to play a straight drive for four. That was so easy, just a push.

5th over: England 23-0 (Duckett 14, Lawrence 5) Lawrence, facing Fernando, gets lucky as an inside edge goes for four. Fun fact: Sri Lanka haven’t lost at Lord’s since Ian Botham was playing for England, back in 1991.

4th over: England 19-0 (Duckett 14, Lawrence 1) Don’t bowl wide of off to Duckett, don’t go the other way to Lawrence… Rathnayake forgets this and concedes four byes, followed by a single to get Lawrence off the mark. He made 30 and 34 in his first go as a makeshift Test opener – the kind of scores that get frowned upon, but more than anyone else in either top three managed.

3rd over: England 14-0 (Duckett 14, Lawrence 0) Hang on, Duckett has found his groove. He square-drives Fernando for four, then off-drives him for four more. Fernando recovers with a couple of dot balls, then goes too wide and lets Duckett glide a third four. He’s helped himself to 13 off seven balls from Fernando.

2nd over: England 2-0 (Duckett 2, Lawrence 0) From the Nursery End, it’s Milan Rathnayake, who made his debut last week and batted better than he bowled. He makes a steady start, starving Duckett of the width he craves until the last ball, which is chopped for another single. Two overs, two runs – someone tell Sir Geoffrey, Test creekit is back.

1st over: England 1-0 (Duckett 1, Lawrence 0) Fernando starts with a yorker, swinging into Duckett, who digs it out and steals a single. A more orthodox ball, jagging in towards Dan Lawrence’s off stump, brings an LBW appeal, but it’s too high. Are England still in the subdued mode with which they stunned us in Manchester?

The new ball is in the hands of Asitha Fernando, so impressive at Old Trafford. Waiting for him is Ben Duckett, the opener who can’t stand playing no stroke.

As the anthems are played, we get a close look at both sides. If it was a competition to see who had more stubble, the Sri Lankans would be heading for an easy win.

The bell is rung by Mahela Jayawardene. He didn’t just make heaps of stylish runs for one of these nations: he went on to work as a batting consultant for the other.

On Sky, the first Oasis song of the day is ringing out. “It’s Lord’s, we’ve gotta go for Champagne Supernova, haven’t we?”

The first email has landed and it’s from our old friend Gary Naylor. “I suspect that there will not be swathes of empty seats on the fourth day – if MCC prices tickets correctly,” he says. “Fifth day ticket prices is something that cricket has got right in recent years and surely the flexibility shown with cut-price seats should extend to other days if advance sales look thin? After all, the overheads are fixed and there’s money to be made on the merch and refreshments. No doubt people who paid ‘full price’ weeks ago might quibble, but that’s the nature of the beast.” Hmm, flexibility … not always MCC’s middle name.

The teams

Toss: Sri Lanka win and bowl first

Preamble