England v Sri Lanka, 3rd Test: Day 2 - Heading for a Draw?

 

England v Sri Lanka

3^rd Test: Day 2

Heading for a Draw?

 

June 10^th  2016

Two days into the Test and things are being put into perspective. This match is being played on a friendly pitch, in near-perfect conditions, with two attacks that lack the X-factor to make things happen.

Once again, the day has been about Jonny Bairstow: first with the bat – his highest Test score – and then with the gloves – a bad drop when England needed to take every chance if they were to make something happen. It matters not a jot that, later, he took a much harder chance: it was the easy one that was shelled that makes the headlines. As a result, suddenly Jos Buttler, who has played no red-ball cricket since South Africa, appears to some fans to be a combination of Don Bradman, Godfrey Evans, Alan Knott and Superman, but without their evident weaknesses. Yes, not playing for a few months imbues players with amazing superpowers.

Jonny Bairstow is not the best wicket-keeper in the country, but he is by far the best wicket-keeper batsman. Whereas Jos Buttler has struggled to show his best batting form in Tests, Jonny Bairstow is in a moment of supreme batting form. He has maintained his record of making a big century every time that he has passed 50 this season: 246; 198; 140 and, now, 167*, with his next highest score this season, 48. He also now has a small matter of 17 catches in the series, although that is largely due to the lemming-like tendencies of some of the Sri Lankan batsmen in the first three innings of this series.

The biggest discovery of the series though may be the most important one, long-term: Chris Woakes. He scored his maiden Test 50, missed out on a century to a single hot-headed moment and then bowled with vim and venom, although without luck. Chris Woakes is starting to look like a fully-fledged Test all-rounder.

The bowling was economical, even Moeen Ali kept the runs down, but there is a real possibility that Sri Lanka can bat for a day and a half more and put 650+ on the board. If they do that, facing Herath to save an innings defeat on the last day may become a daunting prospect.

England v Sri Lanka, 3rd Test: Day 1 - England Struggle With the Weight of Final Test Syndrome

 

England v Sri Lanka

3^rd Test: Day 1

England Struggle With the Weight of Final Test Syndrome

 

June 9^th  2016

 

The shadow of Tino Best in 2012 hangs long over Lord’s in this Test. England went into the match 2-0 and looking for a whitewash and, in a severely rain-affected game, Tino Best, who had only passed 20 twice in has previous 14 Tests, scored 95 in a last wicket partnership of 143 in 31 overs as the West Indies went from a shaky 208-6 to a healthy 426ao and were grateful that rain saved them from too much embarrassment when slipping to 49-3 in reply.

England lost the Final Test in South Africa. Lost in the UAE when a draw and 1-0 would have been a highly respectable result. Lost against Australia. Lost series wins against the West Indies and New Zealand by losing the final Test. England’s relatively poor ranking in the ICC Test Ranking owes a lot to multiple train wrecks in the final Tests of series in the last three years that have turned comfortable wins into narrow ones, narrow wins into drawn series and narrow defeats into bad defeats.

It is getting too systematic to be just bad luck. Yesterday all the signs were there again. Sri Lanka went from being totally out of their depth for one and three-quarters Tests to giving England a scare when an innings victory seemed inevitable. When the great West Indian or Australian sides of the past would be looking to be ruthless and humiliate their opponents, England relaxed and Sri Lanka won back their self-respect. You knew that there was a chance that they would continue that upward trend if England did not impose themselves. And there was a real danger that a series that should finish 3-0, will end 2-1.

Beautiful batting conditions. Lord’s pitch that looked full of runs. Green attack weighted-down with worries. England winning the Toss. The sort of day where your #5 batsman does not plan to change into his whites before Tea. The sort of day where Nick Compton and James Vince must have thought that all their prayers were answered: a fifty at least, a century there for the taking with a little luck. At 56-0  it should have been a long, hard day in the field for Sri Lanka. At 84-4 the vultures were circling, no just over England, but over half the batting.

It seems doubtful that anything less than a second innings century will save Nick Compton and maybe not even that. Since starting with a vital 85 that set up the 1^st Test victory in South Africa his scores have shown a frightening downwards trend: 49, 45, 15, 26, 0, 19, 6, 0, 9, 22*, 1. 179 runs in the first three innings of his comeback. 98 runs in the next 9. It is not just lack of runs. His strike rate has gone down too from 39.2 in those first three innings to 35.4 in his last 9 (boosted by his not out innings in the 2^nd Test victory) and the manner of his dismissals has gone from badly executed attempts to accelerate the scoring, to timid surrender. He has had a bad trot in 2016, not scoring runs for Middlesex either and, at 33 before the end of the month, the case for extending his run is getting steadily weaker, particularly as Scott Borthwick is showing great form at #3 for Durham and would give another spin option.

With the new and somewhat bizarre County Championship, almost half the season is played in April and May and Middlesex have just two more games before August. He cannot even be sent back to his county to find some form, unless it is in 2^nd XI cricket and even County 2^nd XIs are playing more and more T20 and less of the longer form.

The other issue that England wish they did not have is that of James Vince. It would be unfair to drop him after three Tests but, the selectors must wish that he could get a second innings 50 to settle things. Since his 119 v Yorkshire in mid-April he has 25, 38, 0, 47, 9, 35, 7, 27 and, yesterday, 10. He has looked okay in his limited opportunities in this series without ever putting his hand up and nailing-down his place with a score.

And, of course, incredibly, despite 86 at Headingley and 83 at Chester-le-Street, Alex Hales’s 18 yesterday was greeted with glee by the fans who did not want him in the Test side in the first place, as it was taken as proof that he cannot cut it at this level.

Thankfully, the captain, who has appeared weighted-down by that search for the 10000^th run is looking a little freer. Without his 85 and another big innings by Jonny Bairstow there was a real danger that Sri Lanka might have been batting soon after Tea and looking to set up a match-winning total.

We are now in a similar situation to Day 3 at Chester-le-Street. Chris Woakes starts the day along with a set batsman. The threat is that the innings could subside to a very sub-par total of under 300. Or it could fly away from Sri Lanka before Lunch. Woakes looks more and more like a Test batsman, but still has not reached 40 in his 8 Tests. If he can show some grit and reach a maiden Test 50 and Jonny Bairstow continues to ride his luck, 400 is on and, with it, probably safety from defeat. Almost every game we say that the first half hour will be critical: Sri Lanka know that if they can get one or both batsmen in that first half hour, they will have an unexpected opportunity to bat England out of the game.

England v Sri Lanka, 2nd Test: Day 4 - England Made to Sweat to Seal the Series

 

England v Sri Lanka

2^nd Test: Day 4

England Made to Sweat to Seal the Series

 

June 1^st  2016

 

Belated comments on the end of the 2^nd Test.

After three and a half chastening matches when Essex, perennial whipping boys Leicestershire and then England exposed their inadequacies, Sri Lanka fought back to such an extent that, at 430-6 after Lunch, horrible imaginings must have been surfacing among the England players. Not only was heavy rain forecast for Day 5, which almost wiped-out play in the County Championship (although ironically, Durham saw not a drop of rain) but, on a pitch taking some turn, there was just a chance that a lead of 150 might have made things very interesting. . Sri Lanka’s resistance did, at least, offer Alistair Cook the opportunity to become the youngest player to 10000 Test runs and thus dot the “i”s and cross the “t”s so that he can concentrate on what is important: scoring runs and winning matches.

Optimistic thoughts when Siriwardne fell early, that England were into the tail, proved unfounded. In the 1^st Test Rangana Herath conveyed the image that he wanted to be anywhere in the world other than in the middle with a bat in his hand facing the music so, when he came in to partner Chandimal with Sri Lanka still 83 short of making England bat again you would have put a lot of money on another innings defeat. Not a bit of it! Herath played a fine innings as Sri Lanka scored at a good clip and, had he stayed another hour, Sri Lanka might just have pulled off an amazing heist against an increasingly dispirited opponent. As it was, 430-6 became 475ao and the damage was limited.

This was an excellent lesson in humility for England.

It was obvious that, at some point, the Sri Lankan batting was going to click and that England would no longer get easy wickets. It was back to hard grind and severe punishment for dropping chances. Had England taken the ones that were offered, quite likely Sri Lanka would have lost by an innings. Mind you, had Sri Lanka taken theirs, England would never have been in a position to win by an innings in the first place.

Sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind and Sri Lanka’s performance has highlighted various issues that remain open and that Trevor Bayliss needs to work on and resolve:

·         Steve Finn is struggling. No current England bowler seems to have so many ups and downs as Steve Finn. Fantastic in South Africa, he is totally out of sorts here. Averaging low 80s and at times no better than high 70s on the speed gun, his series figures (4-138) look respectable thanks to three cheap wickets at the death in the 1^st Test but he has not really looked any kind of threat. However, dropping him for his home Test at Lord’s would deny him the chance to click again on a ground that is far more suited to his style of bowling although, if he bowls at these speeds on a flat, Lord’s wicket he will have zero impact except from on his own side’s chances.

·        Moeen Ali is looking increasingly vulnerable as a front-line spinner. Asked to do a holding job on a pitch offering some help, he was attacked and carted around the field by the Sri Lankans, as batsmen have now become accustomed to him and play his bowling on its merits. On what metric do you judge Moeen Ali? Everyone, not least probably he, was taken by surprise by his immediate impact in Tests, rocking Sri Lanka and India in 2014 and becoming “The Beard that is Feared”. At times he looks totally out of his depth as a spinner at this level, but then you look at his overall figures: 66 wickets in 25 Tests (2.6 wickets per Test – which is highly respectable), with a strike rate of an impressive 65.6, although averaging now 40.7. These figures are inferior to Graeme Swann and Monty Panesar, but comparable to or superior to just about any other England spinner of the last 30 years. Add in 1104 runs at 31.5 and 13 catches and you have a player who is certainly doing a job for the team: it is a far superior all-round record to, say, Ashley Giles. Should England look to playing a specialist spinner (but #11 bat) in the team alongside him at the cost of sacrificing a seamer?

·        Chris Woakes is beginning to justify the faith that the selectors have shown in him. The jury is still out, but this was, without a doubt, his most complete performance as a Test all-rounder. However, after 7 Tests he is still averaging only 24 with the bat and 47.8 with the ball. Can he demonstrate that he can take wickets consistently even when there is little help available?

·        The jury is still out on Nick Compton. When Alex Hales got a decent ball, Nick Compton probably had mixed feelings. On the one hand he had a chance, albeit brief, to score some runs. On the other, another failure would almost certainly have ended his Test career. In the end, 22* has done just enough to seal his place, especially as he batted with increasing confidence at the end, denying his captain the chance of a 50 by sealing the game with consecutive boundaries. He will need a good 3^rd Test to retain his place (Trevor Bayliss has mentioned Tom Westley, Scott Borthwick, Daniel Bell-Drummond and Mark Stoneman but, interestingly, only grudgingly acknowledged Sam Robson as an option to replace him), but is still hanging in there.

·        Jonny Bairstow is not the finished article. As a batsman he is really looking to have arrived although, after 26 Tests, his batting average is only 35.7, due mainly to a difficult start to his England career. As a wicket-keeper he is subject to the merciless scrutiny that wicket-keepers suffer when, of the 1031 balls that he faced behind the stumps, people focus on just three: a missed stumping, a dropped catch and a ball that scuttled through his legs for four byes. That said, the record for a 3-Test series is 17 dismissals (held by the much-maligned Geraint Jones) and Jonny Bairstow is on 16 after just two Tests – he must be doing something right. People often forget that Rod Marsh was called “Iron Gloves” when he started (and not affectionately either) and fans were often enraged that Alec Stewart took the gloves early in his career: both became very fine wicket-keepers; Jonny Bairstow will undoubtedly do the same, but he may need a hide like a rhinoceros to ignore the criticisms before it happens.

England v Sri Lanka, 2nd Test: Day 3 - Finally Sri Lanka show that there is not much wrong with the pitch or the conditions

 

England v Sri Lanka

2^nd Test: Day 3

Finally Sri Lanka show that there is not much wrong with the pitch or the conditions

 

May 29^th  2016

 

No time to write today, but this was the day that cricket fans had been waiting for. Despite losing their last two 1^st innings wickets within 4 overs in the morning and losing a wicket early after the follow-on was inevitably enforced, Sri Lanka have done England a favour by giving them a really hard work out and showing that there was nothing wrong with the pitch whatsoever. Whinging about greentops (on which England scored 500 batting first) can end.

Interesting items to come out of the day’s play include the suggestion that maybe Chris Woakes could retain his place when Ben Stokes is fit, with a very off-colour Steve Finn potentially making way. And Moeen Ali discovering that life is not as easy as he had been having it so far: series figures of 5-4-2-1 taking a massive dent as the Sri Lankans targeted him. With Somerset’s Jack Leach (a genuine batting ferret) and Simon Kerrigan at Lancashire showing some decent form, there are some options appearing. As both Leach and Kerrigan are Slow Left Arm, you could even make a case to play Moeen with one or other, giving England a genuinely balanced attack, while retaining three quality seamers.

 

England v Sri Lanka, 2nd Test: Day 2 - Abject Sri Lankan Surrender

 

England v Sri Lanka

2^nd Test: Day 2

Abject Sri Lankan Surrender

 

May 28^th  2016

 

Not everything has gone right for England in this series. Today though they put in as complete a performance as we have seen in recent years. It has to be said that Sri Lanka’s surrender, on a pitch that allowed Steve Finn to bat, once again, in some comfort, was as abject as anything served up by Bangladesh or Zimbabwe at their worst. The tone was set in the first half hour with two bad misses in the field, one of them so awful that it led to the wicket-keeper being substituted. It continued with Moeen Ali passing 50 for just the second time since the end of last summer before setting out to flay the bowling to all corners and ended at 91-8 on a blameless surface in decent batting conditions.

The good news: Sri Lanka have already lasted longer than in either innings in the 1^st Test. Yes, all of 40 overs.

Once again there will be accusations that England have ambushed Sri Lanka with an uncut pitch that was as green, or even greener than the outfield. It was not. Three of England’s players under most pressure for not performing with the bat – Hales, Moeen and Woakes – were able to either score a Test best (Moeen and Woakes) or, in Hales’s case, show that his previous innings was not a fluke although he just missed out on a Test best. During the England innings there was something for the bowler who bent his back and made a real effort, the odd ball did something, but it was by no means a difficult track to score on. Moeen defended to 50 and then cut loose. Woakes, for the first time, looked like a genuine Test batsman – he has nine First Class centuries and a FC batting average of 36.7 – and Sri Lanka seemed to lose all interest.

At the start of play the target was 400 and that looked complicated: an early wicket and 380 would have been difficult. England said that they wanted 450 (not too many fans would have felt that realistic), but the Moeen show pushed things up to almost 500 when Alistair Cook decided to declare. Yes, 500 in well under 5 sessions and England were being accused by some feed-backers of being defensive and boring.

This time with a good batting pitch, good overhead conditions and a stronger batting line-up, you felt that someone would make a decent score and that Sri Lanka could not possibly  fold cheaply twice. There was no sense of an imminent wicket with every ball. Despite the ritual fall of a Sri Lankan opener early, at 44-1, with Anderson and Broad having each bowled six overs and coming to the end of their opening bursts, the scoreboard moving along and two batsman getting set, this had to be the day when Sri Lanka closed at no worse than 120-3, with the prospect of rain on the fourth day to help out. The luckless Nick Compton had just missed a difficult but, by no means impossible, catch. Things were looking good for the batsmen. Last ball of the twelfth over. Knick. Dying on Jonny Bairstow who swoops and scoops. The batsman stands his ground.

Everything then moves into that pause when innumerable replays are shown from multiple angles, none of them suitable for the job. The batsman knows that if he stands his ground the Third Umpire will inevitably find an angle which the foreshortening and the elevation of the camera will make appear that the ball has bounced or, at least, offer sufficient doubt that a clean catch appears uncertain. It is a standard issue with modern technology: it almost always makes low catches look doubtful. It is a simple physics problem: the front view with a somewhat elevated camera to see over the bowler and umpire means that the ball is moving almost directly away from the camera; there is no horizon reference, there is no depth to the image, we cannot see if the ball has changed direction (i.e. has bounced) and although high-resolution TV has improved things, the resolution of the image when zoomed is never quite high enough or, said another way, the image is never quite sharp enough. It is almost impossible to tell where the ball has bounced because the brain has insufficient information to give a complete trajectory solution.

It is also a problem that could be resolved, or almost resolved, at least for catches behind the wicket by having a camera at a low level, positioned square-on about 20 metres behind the stumps, so that it will be in line with the wicket-keeper or slips. If that is too complicated, a back-facing stumpcam at no more than half stump height and preferably a quarter stump height (the lower, the better) will offer the proper perspective and, at least, give the Third Umpire better data to work with.

The batsman knows that the longer that the Third Umpire is looking at the images, the more replays that are called for, the better the chance that he will get away with it.

This was one of the occasions though when a long delay was just a measure of the Third Umpire going through the process with care. He had to see clear evidence that the ball had bounced. Listeners can hear the dialogue between Umpire and Third Umpire: “first check the front foot” – it was fine… not a No Ball. Then the conversation over the actual catch. The Third Umpire asks for the images to be zoomed. Increasing confidence that it looks clean. Finally, the confirmation: “you can give that Out” and the wave of opprobrium in the Internet from hundreds of fans who saw that the ball had “clearly bounced first”. Yes, it was close, but the first impression of the Umpire and most commentators seeing it live was that the catch was clean.

The breech was made. In came the injured Chandimal who had been substituted having not even moved for the ball when Woakes had offered a gentle dolly to the ‘keeper earlier. Chandimal’s day got no better and Jimmy Anderson could take a rest with figures of 9-1-30-2.

Matthews and Mendis together, the one partnership that you could imagine putting on 150 together. On came Woakes, fresh from 9-37 in the County Championship, with a Test bowling average of 63. First over, good, but with no hint of the drama to come. Second over, a wild swing from Matthews before a not very thin edge (with a loud noise) through to Bairstow. One can only imagine that Matthews, a fine, brave player, is starting to crack under the pressure because he must have been the only one on the ground doubting the edge. Cue the jokes that Shane Watson is the Sri Lankan review coach. Suddenly 44-1 is 58-4 and Sri Lanka are wobbling. A couple of overs of peace, a Steve Finn over that neither threatens the batsman nor the Square Leg Umpire and Chris Woakes comes in for his fourth over. Double-wicket maiden. Mendis and the extra batsman, Siriwardena out, 67-6 and the innings all over bar the shouting.

Even then Sri Lanka appeared to be putting things in their proper context as the adhesive Thirimanne and Herath appeared to be moving calmly to the Close, with England relaxing somewhat. Woakes came off guarding figures of 7-4-9-3 and on came Moeen, adding to his solitary over in the series so far. Four straight maidens and his series figures are now 5-4-2-1. Moeen seems to enjoy playing Sri Lanka in May. Back came Anderson to join Broad with nothing much happening. Penultimate over of the day. Longest Sri Lankan stand of the series. Both sides playing for the Close. And, from nowhere, Broad takes two wickets, the first a standard edge to Anderson, the second a remarkable double-play, with Vince palming a screaming edge into the air for Joe Root to dive and take the re-bound one-handed inches from the turf.

91-8 at the Close and enforcing the follow-on in the first half hour of the morning looks to be a no-brainer. So far, in three innings, Sri Lanka have not lasted a total of 4 sessions. The likelihood is that the match will end tonight unless Sri Lanka find some spirit of resistance from somewhere.

England v Sri Lanka, 2nd Test: Day 1 - Glass Half Full Again

 

England v Sri Lanka

2^nd Test: Day 1

Glass Half Full Again

 

May 27^th  2016

 

What does one make of 310-6? The pundits were amazed that England batted in the morning rather than waiting until around Tea to bat and, for large parts of the day, the bat dominated the ball, with the Sri Lankans wondering where a wicket might come from. Yet England were again indebted to Alex Hales for anchoring the innings. He is likely to finish with the top score, unless Moeen shows the sort of form that he has shown for Worcestershire his season and the tail hangs around tomorrow.

With the exception of the struggling Nick Compton, everyone got in and then got out, but no one went on to make it count. Hales reached the 80s again, but again fell to an attacking shot when the century was there for the taking. Sri Lanka brought on a part-time spinner, desperate for a wicket. One ball sailed into the stands and then, the next, Hales tried to repeat the dose. The consolation is that four of the wickets fell to superb catches: if a fly had dared to pass through the slips, one of the Sri Lankans would have bagged it and that, despite playing in, what for them were inhumanly cold conditions. Root looked set for a century but ballooned a pull. Vince fell to the sort of stunning acrobatics that Gordon Banks used to be famous for, Jonny Bairstow demonstrated that he is human and Nick Compton really did not need to see his shot go to hand and stick. Something that has caught the attention is that Root seemed to be fooled by some uneven bounce. Various players got into a tangle trying to play outside off or to pull, strokes that demand reliable bounce (and judgement) suggesting that, although the surface looks full of runs, batting last may get interesting (a euphemism).

Poor Nick Compton. 109 runs at 15.7 this season, with a highest score of 44. He was, along with Alec Hales, a marginal pick but, while Hales has almost certainly sealed his place for the whole summer with two near-centuries, Nick Compton knows that he is depending on charity. If England win and if Compton does not get a second innings and a score, the selectors will have two choices: stick with him for the last match of the series and then (almost certainly) drop him barring a miraculous turn to form, or give his replacement a game to bed-in in a series won before the sterner test against Pakistan. With 634 runs in 8 innings at 90.6 Sam Robson is demanding a recall and you feel that one more score against Hampshire in the match starting on Sunday and he will have to be considered, although Scott Borthwick will know that he is a natural #3 in good form who has Test wickets to his name and would be a slightly left field pick: even so, runs at 51.3 with 2x100 and 1x50 in nine innings demands a second look.

As at Headingley, Sri Lanka’s bowling did not quite get it right initially, but the attack seemed to take wickets despite itself even though the hero of the first day at Headingley has been sacrificed to strengthen the batting. While many pundits took it as read that Sri Lanka would have been bowled out cheaply had England inserted them, the batting looks stronger in this Test and the batsmen have the experience of the first Test to draw on. Do not be surprised if they put up sterner resistance this time.

For England, tomorrow morning is about pushing the total up to or over 400. Moeen Ali, Chris Woakes and Stuart Broad have to sell their wickets dearly. Moeen needs a score to silence the whispers that are wondering if Lancashire's good start and 14 wickets at 29.7 means that it is time to have another look at Simon Kerrigan. He has been moved up a position to #7 to give him a chance to play a major innings. Chris Woakes needs to stay with him and go well past his Test best of 26*.

310-6 is not a disaster, but the score at the Close could, so easily, have been 330-3, with Sri Lanka batted almost out of the match.

England v Sri Lanka, 1st Test: Day 3, England’s Flawed Win

 

England v Sri Lanka

1^st Test: Day 3

England’s Flawed Win

 

May 22^nd  2016

 

When people look at the scorecard in ten years’ time, they will think that this was a facile victory of a very good side against a very poor one on a difficult pitch. In doing so they will give England far too much credit.

The pitch was by no means difficult. In fact, the TMS commentators pointed out time and again that the pitch was an excellent Test surface. There was some lateral movement, but the damage was done by the atmospheric conditions and the murky light: ideal for swing bowling. Herath could turn the ball. Moeen Ali only got one over in the match and took the wicket of Chandimal – no rabbit with the bat. And England had an attack in the second innings missing the injured Ben Stokes and with Steve Finn looking totally ineffective.

England’s score of 298 depended on two players: Jonny Bairstow, the only player to bat with real liberty and the battling Alex Hales. The England collapse was made more alarming by the way that most of the batsmen got themselves out – there were very few who can say that a bowler genuinely took his wicket. However, Steve Finn – the Watford Wall – and a genuinely number 11, got in and was able bat comfortably for well over an hour, often taking 4 and even 5 balls in an over. If Steve Finn can get in and play some good shots, it was far from an impossible surface to bat on!

Nick Compton needed runs and did not get them. He was one of the few to get a really good ball. Vince did not convince: he looked quite comfortable, but got himself out in single figures. Ben Stokes played WHACK! WHACK! OUT! And Moeen Ali, who has been in delicious batting form for Worcestershire, never looked like scoring a run. Add a duck for Root and a failure for Alistair Cook and the batting has little to be proud of.

Some of the Sri Lankan batting looked overawed. England had no one bowling at close to 90mph, but the tail-enders were backing away to Square Leg and appeared plain scared. However, at one point it looked as if England would have to bat again and you wondered where the next wicket might come from: Jimmy Anderson had to rest some time, Stuart Broad could not reproduce his first innings magic, Ben Stokes has a knee problem that may need an operation and poor Steve Finn looked as if he were a Middlesex 2^nd XI player given a surprise call-up in an injury crisis.

Stokes must be an unlikely starter for his home Test with Chris Woakes favourite to replace him. Woakes for Stokes sounds as if it is like-for-like, but it is a bit like replacing Bruce Willis in an action movie with Leslie Nielson… it is not quite the same level of action. Meanwhile, Jake Ball will be telling his wife not to expect him home on Friday night: there are good reasons for playing him instead of Finn at Chester-le-Street. Finn had batted well and took two superb catches in the first innings, but his job is to bowl fast and take wickets. Until his late burst in the final collapse as Sri Lanka fell from 93-3 to 119ao, he looked unlikely to take a wicket. Finn’s self-confidence will have been done no harm by seeing Herath scared to face him after being hit and then by taking Thirimanne, who batted so well in the first innings and who will surely score some big runs by the end of the series, but unless Steve Finn is to bowl fast and threatening at Chester-le-Street, it is best to pick a specialist seam and swing merchant instead. Finn’s county form has not be great either, part of what has been a curiously off-colour Middlesex attack so far this season.

So, it was job done and job done big time, but the conspiracy theorists are already seeing evidence of foul play and suggesting that Sri Lanka were sacrificed on a pitch the same colour as the outfield. If they had asked instead why the first two Tests are going to the north of England in May, they might have been closer to the mark. England though, apart from Alex Hales showing that he is up to the job of grafting runs and Jimmy Anderson showing that he is so much better for playing some matches for his county before playing a Test, the result has been curiously unsatisfying.