21st over: Sri Lanka 61-1 ( de Silva 18, Karunaratne 25) Moeen getting the ball to spit past the edge here. Great bowling. The over is spoilt by a widish half volley which is driven – what elegance!- for four by de Silva.
20th over: Sri Lanka 59-1 ( de Silva 17, Karunaratne 23) Karunaratne drives just over Leach’s outstretched hand. Three from the over.
19th over: Sri Lanka 57-1 ( de Silva 16, Karunaratne 23) A hotch-potch of an over. Moeen confuses de Silva with the flight, who is saved by his pads. He follows up with an ugly swipe to midwicket before Karunartne reverse-sweeps for four.
18th over: Sri Lanka 51-1 ( de Silva 15, Karunaratne 18) Leach strays by millimetres and de Silva raises his left elbow, twinkles his feet and goes through the covers for four. Next ball is wider, worse, and de Silva square cuts, another four. Bootiful.
17th over: Sri Lanka 43-1 ( de Silva 7, Karunaratne 18) Moeen tightens the leash with another maiden. Can Sri Lanka absorb the pressure? Karunaratne chips the last ball just short of Root at mid-on. Fifteen minutes till lunch.
16th over: Sri Lanka 43-1 ( de Silva 7, Karunaratne 18) de Silva drives loosely and high at Leach, just a finger’s length past a leaping Bairstow at mid-off, and on to the boundary. Next ball, Leach senses de Silva coming again and sends it in faster, and de Silva pads it away. A fascinating little battle.
15th over: Sri Lanka 39-1 ( de Silva 3, Karunaratne 18) Moeen appeals for an lbw, Root thinks about it, but decides against. Wisely.
14th over: Sri Lanka 37-1 ( de Silva 2, Karunaratne 17) Karunaratne gently caresses Leach down to third man – just a couple of runs but beautiful. Four from the over.
Eggzellent advice from Philip Morton: “The uncooked ones spin much more slowly.
Phil (in Berkeley, where it’s 10:00 p.m.)
13th over: Sri Lanka 33-1 ( de Silva 1, Karunaratne 14) Two off Moeen’s over.
12th over: Sri Lanka 31-1 ( de Silva 0, Karunaratne 12) Gunathilaka had just swept Leach for four before losing his head there. Such a great catch by Jennings, fantastic reactions in such an uncomfortable position.
A nasty slog by Gunathilaka and the ball hits the outside edge and we have and another Keaton Jennings beauty under the lid! It hits him straight and hard in the midrift and he somehow holds on.
11th over: Sri Lanka 26-0 ( Gunathilaka 14, Karunaratne 12) Ah, Broad has bowled his last for now. And we have Moeen for the two left-handers. Immediately they are groping as Moeen finds some turn straight-away.
OBO readers do struggle with eggs. Damian Walsh this time…
“Morning Tanya” Morning!
“My sympathies to Finbar.
I took a hard boiled egg from a basket on the breakfast bar of the hotel where I was staying. I had a quick bite of cheese then went to work on my egg – tapping it sharply on my plate so that I could peel off the shell. Egg everywhere the dozy person at the hotel must have mixed up his eggs.
Chuckling to myself I took another plate and another egg (being no fool I went right to the bottom of the basket for this one). Tapping it prior to unwrapping it I only had the same result. This is the moment when I finally look up and I see that there are two separate baskets of eggs, and that my one is next to some sort of contraption with a timer, full of boiling water and small egg shaped baskets on long handles………..”
10th over: Sri Lanka 26-0 ( Gunathilaka 14, Karunaratne 12) Take that! Gunathilaka, down on one knee, reverse sweeps, karate-chops, Leach for four. Then he has a rush of blood, drives, gets an inside edge which flies off uncontrollably through his legs like a stray cat. Then a dodgy single which they survive. Time for drinks all round.
Ian Forth writes: “Earlier (when you had no email), you mentioned primeval roars as the only ones. But other roars are available. For example, the metaphorical roar of Brexit chickens coming home to roost. The quiet roar of an Ian Duncan Smith at a Conservative Party conference. “The quiet man is turning up the voLUME…” And the two-faced roar from a conference of delegates about to knife him in the back three days later.”
I remember the quiet man. As a quiet woman, but not an IDS fan, I felt a tiny, tiny, bit of cringing sympathy for him….
9th over: Sri Lanka 19-0 ( Gunathilaka 8, Karunaratne 11) This must be Broad’s last over, surely, as pink as a blamange, he pounds in. A great line again but frustration on frustration as Sri Lanka refuse to nibble. Then to the last ball, Karunaratne gets his head over the ball and correctly, elegantly, drives leg-side of the wicket for four. Give the poor man a drink someone.
8th over: Sri Lanka 14-0 ( Gunathilaka 7, Karunaratne 7) Leach hasn’t got a left hander out this series, according to Sky. But he keeps it tight here. Nevertheless Sri Lanka rotate the strike with a couple of singles and hope to dine in half an hour or so on patience.
7th over: Sri Lanka 12-0 ( Gunathilaka 6, Karunaratne 6) Broad looking knackered, shirt sticking to his torso yet still he dangles the ball in the area of temptation for the Sri Lankan batsmen. Gunathilaka holds his discipline and resists, resists. Another maiden.
Rory writes:
Hi, Tanya.
Do you think the slips are too close? I’ve never seen Root at 1st slip miss one for pace before. Are they playing the last test’s pitch when it dropped short?
Asking you cos this is the first match this series I’ve bothered to put a stream on.
Peace
6th over: Sri Lanka 12-0 ( Gunathilaka 6, Karunaratne 6) Leach appeals for an lbw,that’s an outside edge; and continues his testing line. One from the over, and Leacha and Broad continue to turn the screw.
Zaph Mann had a bad dawn experience with a septic tank:
5th over: Sri Lanka 11-0 ( Gunathilaka 5, Karunaratne 2) A super over there from Broad, would-be-wicket richly deserved for a probing length and line. Joe Root looks at the ground sheepishly.
Joe Root drops Karunaratne at first slip off Stuart Broad. It hits him on the wrist awkwardly and goes down for four.
4th over: Sri Lanka 7-0 ( Gunathilaka 5, Karunaratne 2) Leach, sunglasses on, unfurls a maiden to Gunathilaka, who prods about without too much bother
Finbar too knows about bad mornings…
“Morning Tanya, 6 am in Piedmont. Worst morning ever was probably when doing teacher training in Milan many years ago and I thought I’d impress my classmates by cracking a hard boiled egg on my soft boiled head. Unfortunately I’d taken wrong egg from fridge and spent of the rest of the day trying to get the not even slightly boiled egg out of my hair.”
3rd over: Sri Lanka 7-0 ( Gunathilaka 5, Karunaratne 2) Broad on a steady line mostly just outside off stump, Karunaratne leaves and leaves again. A maiden over.
Phil knows first half-hour England felt….
2nd over: Sri Lanka 7-0 ( Gunathilaka 5, Karunaratne 2) Root throws the ball to Leach, who might have to mend a few fences this morning. Gunathilaka tries to sweep, gets a top edge but falls short of the fielder at fine leg.
1st over: Sri Lanka 4-0 ( Gunathilaka 4, Karunaratne 0) And we see Broad for the first time this series with the ball. You might have seen him on a segment on Sky Sports earlier in the series when he talked about rejigging his approach – Athers thinks the run-up might be a little shorter. He’s got a lovely action to watch. Gunathilaka watches for five balls, then cover drives with bent knee, beautifully.
Ah I think my email address might be wrong on the standfirst. It’s [email protected]. Either that or it is just me, and John and Gary.
We’ve all had mornings like that. I’ve had mornings like that. Tell me about your mornings like that.
The morning’s play hasn’t impressed the watching scribes, demob happy and pens poised.
92.5 overs: England 336 all out ( Rashid 21) Well that was a bit of a collapse. England missing Sam Curran and his adhesive qualities perhaps.
Leach goes rogue, tries to lift the ball up and over and is superbly caught by Mathews running backwards at long off.
92 overs: England 332-9 (Leach 2, Rashid 19) Five wickets now for Sandakan, who has had a great day and a bit with the ball. Leach, wide-eyed, not looking totally convincing here, with a couple of squirts off the outside edge.
Gary Naylor is on the twitters:
Oh dear. Broad gets down on one knee, sweeps and is bowled by Sandakan. Jarrod Kimber had just said that Broad had never faced a left-arm wrist spinner in first class cricket before….he has now faced one ball from a left-arm wrist spinner.
91 overs: England 328-8 (Broad 0, Rashid 18) I think we can agree that Moeen Ali is not bothered about his average in any way whatsoever. But here is a cracking little stat about Rashid.
Moeen dances down the pitch and hits the ball straight to long off.
90 overs: England 327-7 (Moeen 33, Rashid 18) Oooooh gorgeous – Moeen lifts his elbow high and drives Suranga Lakmal through cover for four. Then he studies his angles… and to the last ball decides to go a little straighter, quicker, and another lovely boundary drive.
John Starbuck is awake – does he ever sleep? Hello John! “And a Good Saturday Morning to you too Tanya. I can attend to the OBO and Talksport2 without interruption today. Can England learn anything from how the Sri Lankans approach rain interruptions? In this country we put our faith in technology – special drainage, super-soppers etc. – whereas plenty of well-led people seem to get the job done faster.”
True – though I think the burning sun might help a bit
89 overs: England 317-7 (Moeen 24, Rashid 17) Dilruwan Perera finishes off the over left from last night. Moeen uses his feet to the first ball of the day for a single; Rashid sweeps the last ball just outside leg stump, past leg slip down to the boundary where it trickles over the rope for four. A busy over.
The umpires are out and the players follow. Yesterday evening’s thunderstorm has been soaked up with no ill effects.
“The pitch has real potential,” to spin says David Lloyd. And the stats show that batting here only gets more difficult – so any extra runs England can garner this morning will be very useful.
Blanket, check. Hot water bottle, check. Cup of tea, check. Hello everyone, wherever you are. Reports from Colombo say it is hot and the pitch is dry, dry, dry.
And a final Good Saturday Morning from this Test series. What thrills yesterday when England’s fifth No.3 in five Tests scored the first century by an English No.3 in 52 attempts. That century maker was, of course, Jonny Bairstow, once the first name on the team sheet, then shorn of the gloves, then injured, then dropped. Now back. With the selectors sleeping a little more easy in their beds YJB was quite emotional about it all. Celebrating with a primeval roar (is there any other kind?) bulging stares, a brief hug with Stokes but nary a smile. The watching press were bewildered when he talked meaningfully afterwards of those out to get him . But that’s Bairstow for you – a complex, deep-thinking, spiky soul.
Anyway, he got England out of a hole and with Stokes threatened to take them out of touching distance, till Sri Lanka fought back in the last session to have England 312-7. Moeen Ali is somehow still there, 23 not out, accompanied by Rashid. Now we see if they can add to the score before England pull on their bowling boots, with just two seamers, one of them – Stuart Broad – taking his first cherry of the series.
Sky Sports Cricket (@SkyCricket)
