England’s hopes of completing a first perfect home summer in two decades are hanging by a thread after collapse and complacency infected their batting and left Sri Lanka 125 runs from victory in the Third Test at Kia Oval.
Already assured of a series win at 2-0 up, England are looking to emulate July’s 3-0 sweep of West Indies but were bundled out for 156 in a second innings that lasted just 34 overs on day three. It would have been worse, too, if not for a terrific counter-attack from Jamie Smith, whose half-century rescued Ollie Pope’s side from 82 for seven.
Sri Lanka’s seamers, for their part, were hugely improved, Lahiru Kumara finishing with figures of four for 21 and Vishwa Fernando claiming three wickets, including the key scalps of Joe Root and Harry Brook in successive overs, as well as that of the charging Smith, for 67 from 50 balls.
Chasing 219, Sri Lanka scored at quicker than a run-a-ball in the evening session to race to stumps on 94 for just the loss of Dimuth Karunaratne. They will return in the morning as firm favourites, with Pathum Nissanka playing beautifully, unbeaten on 53, and the only question over Dinesh Chandimal’s fitness, after the wicketkeeper was hurt in the field.
After five successive Test victories ranging from the comfortable to the outright dominant, and an opening day of the sixth in similar vein, England’s summer-long ruthless streak has slipped badly over the course of the last two days.
Having rattled off 221 for three in half-a-day’s play on a rain disrupted Friday, Saturday had seen the hosts allow Sri Lanka back into the game, first with a collapse of six for 64 and then via a prolonged spell of soft spin under poor light.
The performances of Olly Stone and debutant Josh Hull, when allowed to bowl, had been the bright notes on a day that at times flirted with farce and both were in the wickets again on the third morning to finish with three apiece.
Hull claimed the key one among them, breaking the partnership of 127 between Dhananjaya de Silva and Kamindu Mendis that had frustrated England overnight. The 20-year-old’s three wickets bettered his tally for the entire County Championship season, though he would have had four and eyes on a maiden five-for had Stone not shelled a simple catch, off Lahiru Kumara, running in off the fence.
Still, England were otherwise relatively clinical, just 52 added to the overnight score for the final five Sri Lankan wickets, and the first innings lead healthy at 62.
From then on, though, they were loose, a tone of carelessness set by openers Dan Lawrence and Ben Duckett, who attacked from the outset as if rushing to set up a day five declaration, not build a demoralising target with still half of the match to play.
Duckett did not make it as far as lunch, clothing to mid-on attempting to hit over the top, and nor did Pope, the interim skipper and first innings centurion dragging on in more forgivable fashion, trying a familiar steer to third-man.
Lawrence’s dwindling returns - from only a modest start - since being drafted in as makeshift opener at the start of the series made it clear this would be his last dart in the role. The Surrey batter played like a man who knew the score, swinging hard before lunch and recklessly so after a short rain delay. The result was an entertaining run-a-ball 35, by one his highest score as a Test opener, followed by an ultimately ugly demise.
Three-down and ahead by only 118, England were in need of calm. Root appeared the obvious candidate to provide it and moved beyond Sri Lankan great Kumar Sangakkara to No6 on the Test all-time runs list, but went no further, trapped in front by Vishwa on 12. Brook soon succumbed against the same bowler in almost identical fashion, both Yorkshire batters reviewing in hope but abandoning that at first replay on the big screen.
And so it fell to Smith, forced to absorb pressure and starved of strike as Chris Woakes and Atkinson, the supposed all-rounders in a lengthy English tail, contributed one run between them.
Atkinson’s exit was Smith’s cue. His assault began with a piece of good fortune, a leading edge just falling safe, but from then was a mixture of crisp drives and audacious pulls. From 15 off 31, he added another 52 in just 18 balls, striking ten fours and a single six before being caught at midwicket off the final delivery before tea, to the dismay of an Oval crowd willing the show to roll on into the evening.
Instead, the tourists made a rollocking start to their chase, Woakes delivering the only breakthrough with the wicket of Karunaratne caught and bowled after the opener had nudged beyond 7,000 Test runs.
