- Over-by-over coverage of the match played at Bristol
- County cricket: join Tanya Aldred for live updates
- Any thoughts? You can email Tim | tweet @TimdeLisle
“Similarity between this match and stage 9 of the Tour de France!” says Andrew Benton. “It’s pelting it down right now. Absolutely pelting.” And he’s in Bristol.
Noooo! It’s raining again. The lights are on, and they’re glowing out of a sky that is beautiful – half-grey, half-blue – but menacing.
Thanks Geoff, afternoon everyoneand welcome to the one sporting event this weekend that is guaranteed to be good for your resting heart rate. Eoin Morgan stuck to the script, and so did the Sri Lankans. Can they find a late twist? Will the rain hold off? Will England take the hint from Geoff and try to knock off the runs inside 20 overs? All these questions will soon have answers.
If I were king, the innings break would be 10 minutes given we were already off for rain earlier in the innings. Get the game going, increase the chance of getting it finished. But I shall have to hand the mace instead to Tim de Lisle, next in the line of OBO succession. Enjoy the chase.
41.1 overs: Sri Lanka 165-10 (Shanaka 47) Another poor batting performance from the Sri Lankans, and another happy day for England in the field. They’ll face an easy chase of 167 to win, and their main opponent from here will be the weather. They’ll need to face 20 overs for Duckworth-Lewis-Stern to be brought into play to calculate a winner. Or they could just score the 165 in less than 20 overs and reduce their risk of a washout. Bairstow and Roy have had partnerships of that size and speed.
The English pattern of sharing the wickets around continued today: 4 for Tom Curran, two each for Willey and Woakes, one for Rashid.
That seals it. First ball of Sam Curran’s over, Shanaka whips to deep midwicket. Takes off, and has to try to come for the second. But a couple of steps down the pitch he decides that he’s not going to make it, and turns back. The No11 has no time to register that, he’s already flat out sprinting from the striker’s end to the non-striker’s. So he ends up at the same end as his batting partner, and the throw comes in to the far end for Bairstow to tip off the bails.
Not sure if Shanaka just decided that a red ink was better than getting run out for no reason – they really had to try for the second, and put pressure on the throw in. Probably wouldn’t have made it, but who knows.
41st over: Sri Lanka 165-9 (Shanaka 47, Asitha 0) Righto, same game again. Shanaka hitting hard to boundary riders and declining to run singles. Fourth ball of the over, he says sod that, and clubs Rashid for six! Huge shot, a drag-down from Rashid and Shanaka flat-bats it over long on. It takes a fair while to find the ball, and then umpire Michael Gough gets sledged by Bairstow for the strength of his underarm throw in returning the sanitised ball to the fielding team.
40th over: Sri Lanka 158-9 (Shanaka 40, Asitha 0) If one Curran doesn’t have any overs left, go to another Curran. Sam still has five to spare. Starts with a wide. Morgan has his field as far spread as is legal in this format, wanting to get the No11 on strike. Shanaka won’t play ball, turning down singles, then looking to play a ramp shot but he misses and is hit in the ribs. Gets a bit of the magic spray, that’ll fix ya. Four balls down, no run off the bat. Fifth ball, carves through cover for four! Top shot, that dip of the knees to get low and then a fierce swing.
Now the field comes right up. Everyone in. Shanaka plays straight to point, takes the run anyway, and Willey’s throw misses. Asitha would have been well short.
39th over: Sri Lanka 152-9 (Shanaka 35, Asitha 0) Asitha Fernando comes out and gets hit on the pad by Rashid’s googly, but the bowler can’t quite bring himself to demand a DRS review. Probably missing leg stump.
We’ve had four Fernandos in the team today, yet not one Fernando-Fernando partnership.
Sharp eyes from Bairstow. Rashid bowls wide of off, Chameera plays a lavish cover drive at it, down on one knee, and misses. He stays exactly in the pose, ruing the ruination of his masterpiece shot, but not thinking that he might be about to get out. Because his back foot is anchored, right? It sure is. But it’s anchored on the line, not behind it. Bairstow sees that, and takes the bails. The third umpire finds it hard to call given the paint of the crease has been completely worn away, but the other camera angle does give a sense of where the line should be given where it resumes, and there’s enough evidence to rule that he’s out.
38th over: Sri Lanka 151-8 (Shanaka 34, Chameera 16) Four in the slip cordon! Morgan keeps adding them through Tom Curran’s over, as the bowler works through his 10th and final instalment. He concedes four runs thanks to overthrows as Chameera thought about a run to gully, and otherwise just tests out the pocket of air surrounding the edge of Chameera’s bat. Just can’t get that nick!
10 overs, 4 for 35 for Tom Curran.
37th over: Sri Lanka 147-8 (Shanaka 34, Chameera 12) Much more economical over for Rashid this time around, and it didn’t take him an hour to get to finish bowling it. Shanaka takes a double and a one, Chameera a single.
36th over: Sri Lanka 143-8 (Shanaka 31, Chameera 11) Tom Curran will be desperate for a fifth wicket today. It doesn’t happen in this over as he warms up again, with three singles collected by the batting team.
35th over: Sri Lanka 140-8 (Shanaka 29, Chameera 10) Welcome back, Adil Rashid. First ball back, the Sri Lankan No10 clouts it through cover for four. Second ball back, full toss, wide slash, top edge through deep third for another boundary.
We’re coming back!
Proper rain now, the big heavy stuff. That reminds me that there was an Australian band in the early 2000s (and possibly at other times) called Big Heavy Stuff. The song that I remember is called Hibernate. Which is what you’d want to be doing in this weather. Nice tune.
If this pause has left you bereft of things to do, weeping into the cold blank void that stretches eternally above us, you might like to hop over to see Tanya on the county cricket blog. Some matches have been rained off but there are some underway.
Related: County cricket: Lancashire v Kent, Warwickshire v Durham, and more – live!
It’s been drizzling for an over or so already, and the umpires to their credit tried to wait it out, but it gets heavier and they’re off. For how long? Who but the universal powers beyond our understanding might know.
34.3 overs: Sri Lanka 132-8 (Shanaka 29, Chameera 2) A wide first, then Rashid gets the googly going, too much turn in the end as it went so sharply, beating Chameera into the pad but continuing down the leg side.
And we’re off for rain.
34th over: Sri Lanka 131-8 (Shanaka 29, Chameera 2) Sliced by Shanaka high over backward point from Tom Curran’s bowling for a couple of runs, his first shot in anger for a while. He takes a single to follow from the fifth ball, but the tailender Chameera undoes that arrangement by getting another to keep the strike himself.
33rd over: Sri Lanka 126-8 (Shanaka 26, Chameera 1) This rather aimless innings continues, a couple of singles from Rashid’s over.
32nd over: Sri Lanka 124-8 (Shanaka 25, Chameera 0) Tom Curran has 4 for 24. Gracious.
The net is over. Curran bangs this ball into the pitch, a bit of seam scramble, maybe a bit of movement, and the tall tailender has a piratical swish at it, across the line. Don’t know if he was aiming off side or leg side, and I don’t know that he knew either. In the end he only gets a little edge, and Bairstow takes a much easier catch than the previous.
31st over: Sri Lanka 122-7 (Shanaka 24, Binura 6) Can’t say that hanging around out here is going to Sri Lanka much good, aside from being a quality net for their lower order. Binura uses his height to get forward to defend against Rashid, then goes back at the end of the over to stab the googly off his pads for a single.
30th over: Sri Lanka 121-7 (Shanaka 24, Binura 5) Big Binura Fernando, our third Fernando for the day, emerges to face our second Curran. Hits him for four first ball, a simple back-foot punch by the seven-footer.
“One glove, one heart, let’s join together and feel alright.” Jonny Bairstow takes the Bob Marley route. Outstanding catch! Karunaratne pokes at the ball outside off stump, an innocuous delivery, and gets a thick edge going wide of the keeper. Bairstow flings, flies, and gets one desperately seeking glove out there. It looks like a drop. It has to be a drop. A deflection for a run, a spill for four maybe. But no. As he comes up from his landing, he has the ball in the webbing, safe as a government minister’s Caymans account.
29th over: Sri Lanka 115-6 (Shanaka 23, Karunaratne 11) Rashid carries on, with Karunaratne happy to lurk back on his stumps and crib the ball away where he can. Picks up a run, then adds another with an overthrow.
28th over: Sri Lanka 112-6 (Shanaka 23, Karunaratne 9) Woakes to bowl out, hunting pads in his final over, looking for one more wicket. He doesn’t get it, but finishes with the very old-school figures of 2 for 28 from ten overs.
27th over: Sri Lanka 110-6 (Shanaka 22, Karunaratne 8) Adil Rashid on to bowl, and that one goes for six. First over of spin we’ve seen today. Long on goes back, and Shanaka goes that way anyway. Dead straight in the end. Flattish leg-break from Rashid and Shanaka swings through it. Looks easy when it works.
26th over: Sri Lanka 102-6 (Shanaka 15, Karunaratne 7) Woakes looks threatening every ball. He’s coming from quite wide on the crease and then straightening the ball with swing. When he winds the length back, it takes Shanaka’s inside edge past the stumps, perilously. But from the last ball of the over he starts too straight, with Shanaka disregarding the swing and cracking that ball off his pads, high over midwicket for four! It wasn’t high percentage, but it was some shot. Lands just inside the rope and over, taking Sri Lanka past three figures.
25th over: Sri Lanka 95-6 (Shanaka 10, Karunaratne 5) Starting to get into his groove is Karunaratne, taking two singles from this over. Willey has now bowled seven, taking 2 for 36. Woakes has bowled eight, 2 for 19. Between them, all a captain could ask for.
24th over: Sri Lanka 92-6 (Shanaka 9, Karunaratne 3) Woakes continues. Again, five balls of Karunaratne on strike before he manages to find a single. He’s basically a nightwatchman who arrived a day too late.
23rd over: Sri Lanka 91-6 (Shanaka 9, Karunaratne 2) Both opening bowlers are back in operation now, David Willey partnering Woakes again. He keeps Karunaratne on strike until the penultimate ball of the over, where there’s a tip-and-run single towards mid off. That’s where Woakes is fielding, and he supports his bowling partner by getting in quickly and underarming down the stumps while diving, nearly getting a run out by a matter of inches on the replay.
22nd over: Sri Lanka 89-6 (Shanaka 9, Karunaratne 1) Woakes is back, with four overs up his sleeve. Morgan wants to finish this game off. Inswing, away jag, keeps beating the edge, and Bairstow behind the stumps just throws his head back without a word. No run from the over.
21st over: Sri Lanka 89-6 (Shanaka 9, Karunaratne 1) Now it’s the turn of Chamika Karunaratne to try to build something with the bat. Did this job in the past two matches: 21 and 19 not out from down the order.
The short ball again. An innocuous one from a bowler who doesn’t blow up the radar. Hasaranga keeps getting out like this, trying to pull when the ball is shoulder height and is outside the off stump. He has to come across the ball, meaning he’s much more likely to mis-strike it. And does so again, top edge with a helping of toe out to deep square leg. See ya later.
20th over: Sri Lanka 85-5 (Hasaranga 18, Shanaka 8) Sam Curran keeps trying to mix things up: a couple short, a couple going across. Gives up a wide and three singles.
Andrew Benton is local-ish. “Looking out of my window down to the southwest - from where the weather usually comes - I see a smorgasbord of dark clouds, light clouds and even a few small pockets of blue. The prognosis? They’ll be off for rain at least half a dozen times. But it will be interesting to see how both sides cope with the added uncertainty.”
19th over: Sri Lanka 81-5 (Hasaranga 16, Shanaka 7) A couple of shots coming now from Shanaka - a cut shot well saved for none, and a pull shot stopped by Rashid at long leg for two runs.
18th over: Sri Lanka 78-5 (Hasaranga 15, Shanaka 5) Cat and mouse! Now Morgan does place a gully for Hasaranga, so the batsman pounds four through midwicket. Gets one just short enough from Curran for the shot, even though the angle took it well outside off stump.
17th over: Sri Lanka 71-5 (Hasaranga 9, Shanaka 4) You wouldn’t call this the excitement period. The current pair just trying to repair something. Tom Curran is bowling fairly straight, and between them they take three runs through the leg side.
16th over: Sri Lanka 68-5 (Hasaranga 8, Shanaka 2) Another Hasuranga edge through gully from Curran, finding nobody. Jason Roy at point moves a bit further around. Three singles from the over.
15th over: Sri Lanka 65-5 (Hasaranga 6, Shanaka 1) Dasun Shanaka in next, an all-rounder. Made 47 in the previous match, and has a few fifties across all formats for Sri Lanka. Has a big swipe first ball, but misses. Guides a single to deep third to follow up.
Biiiig fart noise for that one. Clown car horn honking. Balloon deflating. Oshada Fernando is bored, wants to be done with this charade, so he tries to flog a ball over mid off and only chips it to the field.
14th over: Sri Lanka 63-4 (Oshada 18, Hasaranga 5) Another big nick from Hasaranga this time, throwing his hands through Sam Curran’s line and edging through gully. Morgan did have a cordon that might have snared that a few overs ago, but has economised to one slip since then. Oshada then decides to charge Curran, who sees him coming and bangs the ball in short. Oshada goes for it anyway, and top edges for six. Uncontrolled but it brings in the goodies.
13th over: Sri Lanka 54-4 (Oshada 10, Hasaranga 4) Bowling Brothers time, then, with Tom Curran on from the Chris Woakes End. And even Tom Curran gets some swing in this over, which is about as common as avian dentistry. Right-armer’s outswing to the right-hander, beating Oshada’s edge once before taking a nick for a run from the next ball.
12th over: Sri Lanka 50-4 (Oshada 8, Hasaranga 2) Get rid of one bendy left-armer swinging at the stumps, and bring in another bendy left-armer swinging at the stumps. Sam Curran replaces Willey, the smaller and younger version also getting the ball to shape and angling it across. Doesn’t concede a run from his over to Oshada Fernando.
11th over: Sri Lanka 50-4 (Oshada 8, Hasaranga 2) Woakes has a lazy 2 for 18 after his first six overs. Still getting swing with the newish ball. The only thing not going the bowler’s way is when Oshada Fernando flicks three runs through midwicket to reach the team 50.
10th over: Sri Lanka 45-4 (Oshada 5, Hasaranga 1) Three slips in for this Sri Lankan pair, with Willey angling the ball across hunting for that edge. Two singles and a wide are all that result from that over. The one beforehand, one run. Two overs before that, one leg bye. The over before that, one wide. So the over that went for 10 runs was the anomalous one in the last five overs, and even that one took a wicket as well.
9th over: Sri Lanka 42-4 (Oshada 3, Hasaranga 0) Wanindu Hasaranga has been asked to do far more work than he should have been on this tour, and here he is again: out to the middle before the overs hit double figures.
They’re on the plane already. Woakes hasn’t bowled a short ball yet today. First time, and with a fine leg waiting, de Silva goes full tilt at it anyway. Big top edge, all the time in the world for Rashid to wait under it, and he catches it in his breadbasket as comfortably as possible.
8th over: Sri Lanka 41-3 (de Silva 4, Oshada 3) Ten runs and the wicket from the over - Nissanka flicking two before he got out, the Oshada Fernando getting started immediately with a cover-drive for two and a leg-side chip for one, before de Silva jumps up and forces a shorter ball through cover for four.
Willey set that up in classic style. Two deliveries swinging into the right-hander’s pads, getting him playing to the leg side, then the one ball angling across with a scrambled seam, moving away just enough to draw an outside edge from a prod forward. England’s opening bowlers dominating once again.
7th over: Sri Lanka 31-2 (Nissanka 4, de Silva 0) Morgan goes up for another review after Woakes loved an lbw appeal against Nissanka, but it struck him above the knee roll and was going well over. Not out. The leg bye from the ricochet is the only score from the over.
6th over: Sri Lanka 30-2 (Nissanka 4, de Silva 0) Willey ends his third over with 1 for 18. Dhanajaya de Silva is at the wicket after his excellent 91 in the previous match.
That surprises everyone! Willey bowls left-arm over with a fair bit of swing into the right-hander and hits him in front of leg stump. The umpire says not out, and even Willey doesn’t seem that convinced as he chats with Morgan about a referral. They roll the dice anyway, and ball-tracking says that ball pitched comfortably in line, swung some, but not as much as it looked, and would have been hitting leg stump flush. The ball actually pitched near off stump in the end. Because Avishka had moved across a bit, it looked like it had pitched closer to leg and was hitting outside leg. Instead it had hit well in line.
You can tell that Willey didn’t expect the wicket by his shout of celebration when DRS says he has it. The surprise is audible.
4th over: Sri Lanka 29-1 (Avishka 14, Nissanka 4) Good over from Woakes to Nissanka, who can’t score. Woakes switching between the ball that moves away and the one that angles back in. Nissanka keeps taking a step across his stumps that makes him vulnerable to being hit on the pad. Woakes is hoping for that mode of dismissal.
3rd over: Sri Lanka 29-1 (Avishka 14, Nissanka 4) Willey bowls left-arm over, and gets the ball to hit the seam and go away from Avishka, just past the edge. The batsman then has his say, glancing two runs before driving four through extra cover. He’s been very good through the off side already today.
3rd over: Sri Lanka 23-1 (Avishka 8, Nissanka 4) Pathum Nissanka ends up as a quasi-opener after all. Right-hander. Starts well, standing up tall and punching Woakes off the back foot through cover point for four.
Profit becomes loss. That wasn’t down to the bowling, unless Woakes wanted to try his luck - he bowls wide and pretty full, and Perera just goes too hard at the drive. Doesn’t get the line, inside edging it back onto his leg stump.
2nd over: Sri Lanka 19-0 (Avishka 8, Perera 9) Now it’s Perera’s turn for some runs, glancing David Willey to fine leg for four before whipping hard off his pads for three. The wet outfield really slows up that second shot on its long path to the boundary on the bigger side of the ground. A few singles as well, and Sri Lanka have made a profitable start.
1st over: Sri Lanka 8-0 (Avishka 7, Perera 1) I expected Nissanka to open but it’ll be Avishka Fernando, one of four Fernandos in the team today. He starts well, too, driving Woakes through cover for four with a strong right hand, then clipping three off his legs. Rashid puts in a good long sprint to save the fourth.
Sri Lanka
Kusal Perera *+
Pathum Nissanka
Avishka Fernando
Dhananjaya de Silva
Oshada Fernando
Wanindu Hasaranga
Dasun Shanaka
Chamika Karunaratne
Binura Fernando
Dushmantha Chameera
Asitha Fernando
England
Jason Roy
Jonny Bairstow +
Joe Root
Eoin Morgan *
Sam Billings
Moeen Ali
Sam Curran
Chris Woakes
David Willey
Tom Curran
Adil Rashid
We get to the toss without much waiting.
Eoin Morgan: “The decision is based on the weather that’s around and potentially around this afternoon. We’ve got one change, Chris Woakes comes back into the side for Mark Wood. Tom Banton has played before, George is very new to the squad. When we look at players we tend to take a long-term view, and when an opportunity arises we try to give them a run. Rather than throw someone is who’s just arrived from county cricket. Getting back into ODI rhythm was something the guys found challenging in this series.”
We were supposed be flipping the coin right about now, but showers have begun in advance of expectations down in Bristol. This be no weather for coin-tossin’, yarr. Grab your umbrella and go for a lap around the block.
As ever, Tim and I will be agog to hear from you - our contacts are in the side / top panel.
Thus we come to one final chance for a pretty fragile Sri Lankan team to get a win on this tour to England. They got bowled out cheaply in one of the T20s and got choked out in the other two. Knocked over for nothing much in the first ODI, went a bit better in the second, but on neither occasion could hold England back in a run chase. This current team has the makings of a decent bowling outfit, all of whom tried hard, but the batting went from questionable to largely absent with three senior players sent home for breaching health rules.
England, on the other hand, have a settled and experienced spread of contributors in whom they have full confidence. Roy, Bairstow, Root, Morgan makes for reassuring reading for local supporters. With the series won, this match might be a chance for young players Tom Banton and George Garton to get a run.
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