*Official* England Tour of Sri Lanka 2018

[flibbertyjibber]

Don't like Stokes at 3 but glad it an unchanged team.

 

[Gomez656]

England bats after winning toss

I am at wrong page but BD 11 for 3
lead 229

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Some shot by Stokes that.

 

[Starfighter]

Root's average is another failure or two from dropping below 50.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

Looks a good toss to win this, need to get as many as possible in first innings as pitch already doing a fair bit for the spinners. Be happy if we set SL 200 in 4th innings.

 

[Hicheal Michael]

George Dobell describing this England team as 'a work in progress'.

They were 'a work in progress' in 2014 - when are they expected to actually improve?

 

[flibbertyjibber]

In fairness we have improved. We have done that rare event of win an away test match.

 

[Gnske]

Well given the players crucial to the 2014 rebuilding barring Moeen have gone to the wind, it's fair enough to call this another work in progress.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

No idea what a good score will be here but the ball doing quite a lot for a first morning and conditions will only get worse. Burns 43 may prove to be one of the highest individual scores of the match here. Fascinating viewing, gutted I off to work during the lunch interval.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

That cameo from Buttler before lunch could be huge, an hour of him in the afternoon and we will be on our way to a decent score I reckon.

 

[theegyptian]

ya reckon 250 would be likely a winning score here for england. burns much improved on last game against spin, or maybe i underselled his ability in game 1. another great toss to win.

 

[vcs]

England picking Buttler on the back of his limited overs + IPL form is proving to be something of a masterstroke. Made a huge impact vs. India as well.

 

[flibbertyjibber]

ya reckon 250 would be likely a winning score here for england. burns much improved on last game against spin, or maybe i underselled his ability in game 1. another great toss to win.

Burns played well, bet the way his technique is that pace bowlers around the world will fancy bowling at him. Sometimes the quirky way of batting works though when all logic tells you it can't.

 

[StephenZA]

The stumps continue to be wider than we think.....

 

[theegyptian]

3rd woeful dismissal of the series by moeen. Maybe good variation by bowler quicker through air but still youd expect to hit that 99/100

 

[Gomez656]

SL has to bats last so good news for eng
Mo should bats at #11, he get great chance for test 90 there

 

[EmJo]

George Dobell describing this England team as 'a work in progress'.

They were 'a work in progress' in 2014 - when are they expected to actually improve?

Realistically this is the England team which should perform, sadly and other bad result is on the cards but I hold a lot of value in Sri Lanka's bowling we will just have to see how they bat.

 

[EmJo]

SL has to bats last so good news for eng
Mo should bats at #11, he get great chance for test 90 there

But his partner has to stick around.

 

[EmJo]

The stumps continue to be wider than we think.....

Or the batsman has a low attention span.

 

[EmJo]

No idea what a good score will be here but the ball doing quite a lot for a first morning and conditions will only get worse. Burns 43 may prove to be one of the highest individual scores of the match here. Fascinating viewing, gutted I off to work during the lunch interval.

I just don't feel England can bat for much longer there will be a collapse at 190. This depends if Sri Lanka can capitalise or are we going to see a two day test match?