LONDON, SEPTEMBER 6
England raced to 76-1 with Ben Duckett already reaching his half-century before bad light and then rain led to an extended stoppage on the opening day of the third and final test against Sri Lanka on Friday.
Sri Lanka, which is 2-0 down and has already lost the series, failed to take advantage of winning the toss and opting bowl first under thick cloud cover at The Oval. England had only lost the wicket of Dan Lawrence (5) before the umpires deemed the light too poor and took the players off barely an hour into the morning session.
An early lunch was taken but then rain arrived on what was a dank and gloomy day in south London. By mid-afternoon, the players were still off the field and only 15 overs had been bowled.
Duckett was onto 51 for his 10th half-century in 26 tests. He brought his fifty up in 48 balls and has hit seven fours already, the best being a back-foot drive through the covers.
The left-handed Duckett was in the middle with stand-in captain Ollie Pope (14 not out) when play was stopped for bad light despite the floodlights being on at The Oval.
Lawrence, a makeshift opener while Zak Crawley is out injured, only made 9 and 7 at Lord's in the second test and didn't fare any better a week later across London. It took him 11 balls to get off the mark and then he tried to flick a short-of-length delivery from Lahiru Kumara into the leg side, only to misjudge it and top-edge to Pathum Nissanka coming in from gully.
Sri Lanka went with an all-seam attack that looked ideal for the early conditions. Spinner Prabath Jayasuriya was left out and Vishwa Fernando recalled, while No. 3 batter Kusal Mendis also returned to the team.
England gave a debut to 20-year-old left-arm seamer Josh Hull, who has been fast-tracked into the squad despite only taking 16 first-class wickets in 10 matches in his career.
England coach Brendon McCullum has acknowledged it is a "hunch" and a "punt" to bring Hull into the team and is thinking ahead to wanting a left-armer in the attack for future series, including the Ashes next year.
Hull was given his first test cap by former England captain Andrew Flintoff and was seen having his photograph taken with his family on the field before play began.
England, which beat the West Indies 3-0 in their series in July, has already defeated Sri Lanka at Old Trafford and Lord's, and is looking to complete a clean sweep of home test series in a summer for the first time since 2004.
