***Official*** England vs Sri Lanka 21st August-10th September 2024

[Howe_zat]

That was Root's 96th score of 50+, which puts him joint 5th of all time, alongside Chanderpaul, by that measure.

 

[Red_Ink_Squid]

Not been able to follow today. I see Woakes batted us to victory again.

 

[reyrey]

Woakes is averaging 60+ with the bat when batting at number 7 and has bucket loads of wickets in those games. Haven't worked it out, but probably averaging 15ish.

 

[LangleyburyCCPlayee]

My match ratings:
Duckett 4–gave England some kind of platform at least, but didn’t kick on
Lawrence 6–not a bad effort for his first shot as opener, got in, so he did his job I guess, though I thought his dismissal in the first innings was unusually tame
Pope 4–in another set-up he might be under pressure for his batting performances, as it is, he finds himself captaining his country, where I think he did a solid job
Root 8–helped England in two sticky little situations with the bat, luckily his dropped dolly didn’t make any difference, and picked up a wicket with the ball
Brook 7–unlucky in the first innings to get a cracking ball from Jayasuriya, good start and then a soft dismissal in the second
Smith 8–first real mistake behind the stumps, though it didn’t seem to affect him too much, and just as importantly, his first Test ton
Woakes 8–just so dependable bowling in English conditions, doesn’t look out of place at #7 with the bat neither
Atkinson 6–good in the first innings, got bashed around in the second innings but picked up the vital wicket of Mendis, handy knock with the bat too up at #8 but put down a presentable chance in the field
Potts 6–poor in the first innings, got 3 in the second and could have got more if not for dropped catches
Wood 7–just an absolutely box office cricketer with bat and ball, he was missed today
Bashir 6–did get a grubber of a wicket in the first innings, unlucky with a few others though

K Fernando 1–two failures with the bat
Karunarate 4–failed in the first innings, looked set in the second until Wood came along
Kusal Mendis 4–the reverse of Karunaratne
Mathews 6–horrible dismissal in the first innings at a time Sri Lanka could ill afford it, battled hard in the second innings until the new old ball came
Chandimal 8–horrendously unlucky in the first innings, a brave knock in the second which only came to an end when slogging with the tail
De Silva 7–steadied the ship when Sri Lanka needed it in the first innings
Kamindu Mendis 8–fantastic century to get Sri Lanka into a position where they could win, two similar dismissals though, I wonder if that’s something England can target going forward
Rathnayake 6–mediocre with the ball, but a great first innings knock when Sri Lanka were in trouble
Jayasuriya 7–two absolute corkers in the first innings
V Fernando 5–didn’t quite work out for him with the ball
A Fernando 7–Sri Lanka’s best bowler

 

[LangleyburyCCPlayee]

Woakes is averaging 60+ with the bat when batting at number 7 and has bucket loads of wickets in those games. Haven't worked it out, but probably averaging 15ish.

6/90 in this match, so you’re bang on there!

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Another game, another win. Fair play to Sri Lanka they fought really hard and the spinner is quality.

This Smith kid though. Wow.

 

[Howe_zat]

Woakes is averaging 60+ with the bat when batting at number 7 and has bucket loads of wickets in those games. Haven't worked it out, but probably averaging 15ish.

Woakes bats at #7 test match list

1) vs India Lords 2018: 2-19, 137*, 2-24
2) vs Ireland Lords 2019: 0, 0-34, 13, 6-17
3) vs West Indies Old Trafford 2020: 1, 1-57, 5-50
4) vs Pakistan Old Trafford 2020: 2-43, 19, 2-11, 84*
5) vs Pakistan Southampton 2020: 1-55
6) vs Pakistan Southampton 2020: 40, 1-42, 0-14
7) vs Sri Lanka Old Trafford 2024: 3-32, 25, 3-58, 8*

So 7 matches, 327 runs at 54.5, 28 wickets at 16.6. Two POTM awards in there too.

The main problem with this is it only ever happening when Stokes is injured, so the best way to bring out Woakes' true strength is to kneecap the England captain.

 

[Son Of Coco]

England suffering from a real old ball shortage it seems.

Same old England.

 

[Boy_Blunder]

Woakes bats at #7 test match list

1) vs India Lords 2018: 2-19, 137*, 2-24
2) vs Ireland Lords 2019: 0, 0-34, 13, 6-17
3) vs West Indies Old Trafford 2020: 1, 1-57, 5-50
4) vs Pakistan Old Trafford 2020: 2-43, 19, 2-11, 84*
5) vs Pakistan Southampton 2020: 1-55
6) vs Pakistan Southampton 2020: 40, 1-42, 0-14
7) vs Sri Lanka Old Trafford 2024: 3-32, 25, 3-58, 8*

So 7 matches, 327 runs at 54.5, 28 wickets at 16.6. Two POTM awards in there too.

The main problem with this is it only ever happening when Stokes is injured, so the best way to bring out Woakes' true strength is to kneecap the England captain.

That batting average is inflated by those two big not outs tbf. I think over a larger sample size that would drop down to the mid thirties, which is still respectable.

 

[Hungry Llama]

Chris Silverwood the coach and now he is coaching Sri Lanka, the irony.

I thought he resigned about a month ago and the coach is sanath or whoever was hiding under the towel on the balcony
for most of the day

Kamindu is the new Bradman.

 

[GIMH]

Highlights on in the background while I spin a few records. As my keen followers will note, I got to watch pretty much the whole second half of the day thanks to an early KO for the whites.

Anyway that lbw review to Root just before tea. Pitches outside leg and he hit it. Hall of fame worthy?

 

[social]

Haven’t really been following England but why is Pope the stand-in captain when he’s lucky to be in the team?

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1827454190752559590

 

[SillyCowCorner1]

So many tests for these players and yet we don’t know where they stand. Mushfiqur Rahim debuted in 2005 and is yet to play 100 tests.

 

[GIMH]

Haven’t really been following England but why is Pope the stand-in captain when he’s lucky to be in the team?

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1827454190752559590

Well, he’s averaging 43 at 3, which is where he’s batted since Stokes took over. So there shouldn’t really be any questions over his place in the side on that basis, and the theory in that tweet about him being better suited to batting lower isn’t born out by the stats.

He probably wouldn’t be VC if I was making the decisions: that would be Brook. And I dare say if Stokes was just taking over now, that would be where they’d land. But that’s the answer to your question and I don’t think he is lucky to be in the team. But he is very much a rocks and diamonds player.

 

[LangleyburyCCPlayee]

Well, he’s averaging 43 at 3, which is where he’s batted since Stokes took over. So there shouldn’t really be any questions over his place in the side on that basis, and the theory in that tweet about him being better suited to batting lower isn’t born out by the stats.

He probably wouldn’t be VC if I was making the decisions: that would be Brook. And I dare say if Stokes was just taking over now, that would be where they’d land. But that’s the answer to your question and I don’t think he is lucky to be in the team. But he is very much a rocks and diamonds player.

3 is such a difficult position to bat in, let’s not forget Root has struggled there before, but Pope is very frustrating isn’t he? He went from hitting the best knock of his career against India in the first test to following it up with sod all for the remainder of the series, and he hit a century (a scratchy one at times admittedly) and 2 50s against the Windies to looking all at sea here. I wonder if he’s not being helped by England’s openers going at it from ball one, they generally do a good job of putting on scoreboard pressure on the bowlers, but by the time Pope is in, the ball is still fairly new most of the time

 

[Nintendo]

Haven’t really been following England but why is Pope the stand-in captain when he’s lucky to be in the team?

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1827454190752559590

Pope under mccullum (batting at 3 in all these innings) 1670 runs @40. Can somoene please pin this to all England threads going forward? Not anyone's fault, but I've seen so many people question pope's spot in the team and it's nonsense.

 

[Starfighter]

Wood out, Hull called up.

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1827631249051017284

 

[ImpatientLime]

a very 'look how clever we are' pick

Sam Cook got a second passport he can utilise?

 

[GIMH]

Wonder if Woakes is fine or still to be assessed

I’m kind of keen for a Sam Curran recall for reasons I can’t fully articulate

 

[Starfighter]

a very 'look how clever we are' pick

Sam Cook got a second passport he can utilise?

I think Key's success with Bashir means he thinks he can get away with anything. In fairness, if you are getting away with it, why not keep going?