England v Sri Lanka: first men’s cricket Test match, rain delays day two start – live | Cricket

WICKET! England 30-1 (Duckett LBW b A Fernando 18)

Duckett flicked across a full delivery from Asitha Fernando that hit him in front of middle and leg. We’ll soon find out where it pitched. I reckon it might be umpire’s call.

Sri Lanka review for LBW against Duckett!

This is really close. If it pitched in line it’s surely out.

Lawrence is not out!

Lawrence shovelled across a good nipbacker that hit him above the knee roll, and he’s a tall man. There was a bit of surprise when Paul Reiffel gave it out… because it would have bounced over the top, as the technology has just confirmed.

Review! Lawrence given out LBW to A Fernando

Height will save him I reckon.

6th over: England 29-0 (Duckett 18, Lawrence 10) The other Fernando, the left-arm seamer Vishwa, starts at the other end. He had a good spell at Yorkshire earlier in the season, which included match figures of 9 for 88 against Derbyshire.

Duckett push a single to deep point, whose deployment is annoying Stuart Broad in the commentary box. “How can you let a really good ball like that go for a run?”

So far, so comfortable for England.

5th over: England 27-0 (Duckett 17, Lawrence 9) Duckett drives Asitha’s Fernando’s first ball of day two through the covers for a couple. Sri Lanka have sweepers on both sides for both openers. There’s a strangled shout for LBW when Lawrence misses an attempted flick off the pads; it was missing leg.

“The revised session times add up to 5 hours and 55 minutes of play, but eight overs are lost from the full day of 90. Is this a tacit admission that teams aren’t keeping up with over-rates?”

That includes the extra half-hour, which I added on because they will inevitably need it. Officially the evening session finishes at 7pm.

Time for cricket. England are 22 for 0, a deficit of 214, with Ben Duckett on 13 and Dan Lawrence on 9. And it’s a really good time to bowl.

The floodlights are on so this will be a good time to bowl, and a significant test of Dan Lawrence, opening batsman.

“That 1990s England team holds a special place in the hearts of so many fans,” says Max Williams. “They seem to be more beloved than more recent and successful England teams. There are podcasts, books – Emma John’s is a lovely read – and vast amounts of goodwill. Is heroic (mostly) failure easier to cherish than hardnosed triumph? Or is it that they competed in the last golden era of Test cricket? They were playing in the most glorious of sunsets, even if we didn’t know it at the time.”

I was going to say it’s probably a generational thing, but you’re a lot younger aren’t you? The fact Athers and Nasser are such extraordinary broadcasters probably adds to the affection as well. And you’re right: Emma’s book is fantastic.

“Re: Andy Davies’ 12.22 email on the Old Trafford karaoke singers – it’s not the first time something like this has happened,” writes Josh B. I was at a Hundred game last year where I was unable to hear anything of what I’m sure was a storming set by the Lottery Winners because of a singer with an acoustic guitar in the same very spot.

”No blame to the entertainers themselves, of course, but given that one of the big selling points of The Hundred is meant to be the live performance in between matches, there seems to be somewhat of a consistent disconnect between what’s being arranged on and off the pitch at OT.”

Revised session times

Play to start at 1.15pm

The covers are off! Peep peep! No start time yet but it’s looking good for 1.10pm.

Rocky Flintoff is going well, 21 not out on his Championship debut at The Oval, although he was dropped on 13. Tanya is following his progress on the county blog.

“I was thankful to be at Old Trafford early enough yesterday in time for the tribute to Graham Thorpe, which as Taha Hashim rightly points out was lovely,” writes Andy Davies. “Can I give a big thumbs down though to the Old Trafford Stadium team, who didn’t stop the karaoke singer based just behind The Point from singing party songs throughout the tribute.

“The caterwauling was handily positioned behind what was at the time the only working screen in the ground, so it meant half of Athers words were drowned out by someone singing along to I Feel Good by James Brown and other songs of a similar ilk. Seemed to sum up quite a lot of the things which annoy me about the modern game, or should that be the modern sports entertainment experience?”

Is that right? That’s remarkably poor, and if this wasn’t a family website I’d be using a different word to ‘remarkably’. That’s bizarre.

“August, summer in England, 12 degrees and rainy,” begins Guy Hornsby. “It’s what we do, isn’t it Rob?I think we’ll get play after lunch though. It’s spitting at Old Trafford but the skies look better where the wind is coming from.

“I’m hobbling around the stands here on crutches after pinging my calf in the field for Sale 4ths on Sunday: proper old man energy. I’m 50 next year, so will it stop me playing? No, of course not. That’s for real people, not glorious cricket tragics. It’ll take more to stop me getting to the cricket!”

Oof, I’m sorry. I’ve only ever had one mild calf ping and that was more than enough.

Lunch at 12.30pm

Duleep Mendis v Ian Botham (ii)

“For some reason, Botham started berating Gower after the third six had been launched into the crowd,” writes Marcus Abdullahi, “prompting one of the great lines from Jim Laker on comms: ‘I don’t really understand what he’s compaining about the whole time. You can’t have men in the crowd to catch ‘em.’

“It can be enjoyed here. (Vid set to right time.)”

No cricket here but there is at The Oval, where Rocky Flintoff, insert age here, is batting against Sam Curran and Dan Worrall on his Championship debut.

No inspection at 12pm

Inspection at 12pm

“I see next summer’s fixtures have come out,” says James de Mellow. “Six Tests, six ODIs, six T20Is. Feels very slim. Do you think this is what the cricket public wants and what are Sky subscribers to do with their diminishing returns?”

It’s not all meh news though.

The rain has stopped and the groundstaff are getting busy. They have plenty to do, so there’s no provisional start time yet.

Remember the name, etc

Rocky Flintoff, 16, is making his County Championship today for Lancashire against Surrey at The Oval. He could be in soon: Lancs are 9 for 1 after losing the toss.

Miller’s got the radar of doom out again, which can mean only one thing: it’s an Old Trafford Test. No, I’m still not over last year. At least this time it appears to the radar of hope.

Sky are currently showing an extended masterclass with Nathan Lyon. As always it’s top-class, just terrific. If you can catch it online later, you should.

“If you’re really, REALLY bored during the inevitable rain breaks today then maybe you might be interested in an old blog of mine on the first Test between England and Sri Lanka in this country back in 1984,” writes Steven Pye. “The match at Lord’s was supposed to provide England with a bit of light relief after the battering they faced at the hands of the West Indies that summer, but it didn’t quite work out that way.”

Thanks Steve. It’s a great story, this, especially Duleep Mendis emasculating Lord Beefy. We covered it in an old Joy of Six as well.

The TMS overseas link is here. (Thanks to Ruth.)

Weather update It’s still November in Manchester. Can’t see there being any play before midday, and probably not before lunch.

Taha Hashim on Graham Thorpe

For the current England team, he wasn’t just a storied name from the past to emulate but someone who was perched in their dressing room until a couple of years ago, passing on advice as a coach. Ian Ward, Michael Atherton and Nasser Hussain, his former colleagues, were on the field in the morning as part of Sky’s coverage, remembering both the cricketer and the man. When Hussain walked off at Lord’s with a century and the winning runs against New Zealand in his final Test, Thorpe was alongside him. He was there with Hussain when they won in Karachi, when they put on 288 against Australia at Edgbaston, when they were boys turning into men at Trent Bridge in 1993. And he was there when it was difficult, too.

Shoaib Bashir: I’m a cricket badger

Chris Woakes on his winter plans

As you get older, the more Test cricket you play, you pick up new skills, have more experience to fall back on and [are] a little bit wiser. That might be a good thing as well that I haven’t [played an away Test] in a little while. It gives you a fresh look on things.

Start delayed

Read Simon Burnton on Captain Pope

The common criticism of Pope’s batting is that he is overly frenetic in the early stages of an innings, but in time settles down. It turns out that he captains in precisely the same way, though it took some time for him to be becalmed.

“Lawrence, always entertaining…”

Preamble