- Day one report: England dominant after skittling Sri Lanka
- The 80s and 90s Cricket Show: podcast relives England’s nadir
- And you can email Tim here or tweet @TimdeLisle
Root sweeps and misses, or edges, a full ball. He could be in trouble here if he hasn’t got a nick.
It looks as if the first over will be bowled by Dilruwan Perera, who wasn’t at his wily best yesterday.
“Hovering around zero here in Piedmont,” says Finbar Anslow. “Still under a foot of snow that fell on Christmas Day. Re the SCG crowd abuse, I was wondering whether there’s any literature on crowd sledging? My memory goes back to a delightful moment at Hove when the future prime minister of Pakistan was offered ‘a glass of scrump’ (declined with a smile). I hope that’s the kind of comment he remembers.” Ha. Whether there’s literature, I’m not sure. There’s certainly plenty of folklore, enough to make a good book. You could call it Declined with a Smile.
“Another gorgeous day here in Georgetown (Penang),” says Spencer Robinson. “Last week I revived my long-lost cricket career with my first net in 30 years at the fabulous Penang Sports Club. Despite plenty of aches and bruises, I’ve survived to tell the tale and have been looking forward to a masterclass today from Messrs Root and Bairstow in the art of playing spin bowling. Please stop the rain in Galle!” I’m on it. The covers are off, and the sky is showing some flecks of blue amid the grey.
Rumours from Galle suggest that the rain has relented and play will resume at 11.10am local time, which is 5.40 in the UK – ten minutes’ time.
“A very good afternoon to you from Singapore,” says Matthew Ayre. “It’s been a miserable start to the year with freakishly high rainfall (even for monsoon season) that started on the 31st and has run nearly incessantly since. Then, a sensational start from England’s bowlers and today – the sun’s out! Glory be, and may it please please continue.” Good to know there’s light at the end of somebody’s tunnel.
“Disappointing no play yet.” Paul Hand is speaking for us all.“Here in Almaty, Kazakhstan (GMT+6) at minus 10, I was rather looking forward to a full day of cricket to follow. Stay safe everyone at this uncertain and difficult time.” Amen to that.
Almaty! Very classy. If anyone else is thinking of sending an email, do say where you are. And give us a flavour of the weather, especially if it’s even worse than it is in Galle.
It’s still raining in Galle, but there’s another Test going on right now – the big showdown in Brisbane between Australia and India, tied on 1-1 with just this game to go. The Indians have so many injuries that they’ve picked a bowling attack with four Test caps between them. And they still managed to get rid of David Warner for hardly any – he’s not just Stuart Broad’s bunny now – and Steve Smith for 36. At tea, Australia are 154 for three, with Marnus Labuschagne, the mini-Smith, looking ominous on 73. Join Emma Kemp for the Guardian OBO here.
Joe Root had the day of his dreams yesterday, and Abhijato Sensarmahas been thinking about him overnight. “The numbers of the (relatively) young English skipper suggest he’s no longer the prolific batsman everyone assumed he would be at the start of his career.” True, though I would argue with “young” – he’s just turned 30. “But the returns from his captaincy decisions have been growing for a long time even now.” Go on... “Backing Buttler, rotating his seamers, yesterday’s innovative captaincy – he’s slowly on the rise of this gig’s learning curve. There remain a few off-putting moments, like his handling of Archer, but I feel the time shall soon come when he compensates for his diminishing numbers with excellent tactical fortitude. Ah, the India tour is either going to be majestic or an absolute disaster, isn’t it?” Ha.
Because he’s so boyish, Root tends to be treated as if he has just taken over. In fact he’s England’s fifth longest-serving captain, on 45 Tests, level with Nasser Hussain. He has got better as a tactician, from a low base. But he has got worse as a batsman, as England captains usually do, and I’m still not convinced that those missing runs are a price worth paying for middling leadership. He has it in him to be England’s best batsman for 50 years: I wish he would just get on and do that. But if he has a few more days like yesterday, and has them in India and Australia, and handles Archer as well as Eoin Morgan does, I’ll be delighted to be proved wrong.
If you’re in Britain and up early, you’re not alone. “Good morning Tim.” Good morning, George Browne. “For years I have been cursed to miss the start of play on overseas tours, but I am pleased to say that this is now a thing of the past. One year and ten days ago I became father to beautiful twins, Otis and Cassie (doesn’t Otis Browne sound like a Windies fast bowler?). These two now ensure that I am awake at ungodly hours to witness these key early overs. Hurrah for fatherhood... I think. Keep up the good work.” You too! But as this is The Guardian, can I just suggest that Cassie Browne also sounds like a Windies fast bowler?
It’s raining. Not the forecast thunder, but a steady drizzle, just to make England feel at home.
Morning everyone. The pandemic has done funny things to us all. Some have grown their hair, others have applied to join the Stasi, and others still have become vulnerable to modest off-breaks purveyed by bouncy young Englishmen. After winning the toss on a turning pitch beneath Galle’s famous fort, the Sri Lankans collapsed like a sandcastle and handed Dom Bess a sensational five for 30, which even he admitted that he didn’t deserve. Stuart Broad’s three for 20 was, by common consent, a much better performance.
England wobbled too, but only briefly, before Joe Root and Jonny Bairstow showed how it’s done with an unbroken partnership of 110. For Dinesh Chandimal, Sri Lanka’s stand-in captain, the task is simple: get rid of them both early on, and stop England’s lead reaching three figures. For Root, it’s even simpler: find 34 more runs to score a Test hundred for the first time in the 2020s. And then add some more, to pile up a lead of 200 and have a fair chance of an innings victory. It would not be unlike England to stage a collapse of their own. They can’t just carry on serenely from the whitewash of 2018, can they?
@TimdeLisle I believe I have perfected the ‘putting the eyes into deliberate unfocused state’ in order to go back to the start of obo so as not to ruin the suspense when catching up at work and England playing unsociable hours.
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