England v Sri Lanka: third men’s cricket Test, day one – live | England v Sri Lanka 2024

5.1 overs: England 20-0 (Duckett 16, Lawrence 0) Vishwa was replaced by Kumara after just two overs. His first delivery was a short ball down the leg side which deflected Duckett's pull before swinging badly and hitting Chandimal on the fingertips. He was in some pain and The physiotherapist comes.

5th innings: England 18-0 (Duckett 16, Lawrence 0) Duckett smashed an Ashta wide ball behind square for 3. He is extremely dangerous and can demoralise a bowling team in an instant, even in favourable conditions.

Lawrence is still scoreless after 10 pitches, but he shows no signs of being shaken.

Fourth round: England 15-0 (Duckett 13, Lawrence 0) Dan Lawrence is on his home ground but doesn't feel at ease in these conditions – he is practically an alien, opening batting against a moving ball, trying to hit Vishwa down leg but getting beaten again.

Lawrence then started to let the ball go, including one that went long and nearly hit Chandimal in the face. He managed to flick it away and get a bye. It was actually Chandimal who kept it, not Kusal Mendis.

Vishwa failed to adjust the line to Duckett, who flicked the ball sharply to square leg for four and flicked the next ball over midwicket for three. He is arguably England's busiest opener ever.

3rd: England 6-0 (Duckett 6, Lawrence 0) Three times lucky for Duckett. First he lost trying to push Asita into another postcode, then he bottom-edged just An off stomp past for four and then finally he carefully lunged at a beautiful ball to be beaten. Duckett has had a quietly modest summer so he will need to score some runs too, although he is not feeling any pressure from his position at the moment.

“Considering Josh Hull's height, it's no surprise that the ceilings are so high,” Smilers wrote. “You'd think someone of his height would want the ceilings to be high enough to avoid hitting their heads.”

It was only a matter of time.

2nd: England 2-0 (Duckett 2, Lawrence 0) Left-hander Vishwa Fernando returns to the team and is dishing out the new ball. Previously, this would have been a morning where you wanted to keep as many as possible but England are not one of those teams. Dan Lawrence, desperate for runs, is beaten by a beautiful full-length ball bowled long off the off stump.

“It's going to be a tough task deciphering who Fernando bowled and who Mendis caught,” wrote Krishnamoorthy V. “Good luck, the horror of typos is already scary enough and now you've added another layer of complexity to your task.”

Don't worry, Krish, I'm a first-class player. (Also, Vishwa Fernando is a left-hander and Kusal Mendis is a keeper, so any fool can tell them apart.)

1st: England 1-0 (Duckett 1, Lawrence 0) Duckett didn't compromise and threw up his hands on the third ball of the match for a loss, misjudging the length more than anything else. Asita was a little inswinging but there was no drama and Duckett started with a leading edge to the off side.

Thanks to Wayne Trotman for today. TMS Overseas Links.

Ashita Fernando will start alongside Ben Duckett in the opening batsman position. It's cloudy and muggy, but a great time for bowling.

“I am one of those people who have very fond memories of 2004.” Will Vignoles writes: “As a 14-year-old, the game against the West Indies at Lord's was my first opportunity to watch a Test match. There was some fantastic cricket throughout the match, but the standout memory from that summer was the return of Simon Jones.

“This could all be a fever dream of my advanced age, but I remember him pitching some ridiculous reverse swing balls and only taking a couple of wickets, but seemingly batting multiple times in every over. Of course, he used it to even more devastating effect the following year, but it was a real eye-opening moment – perhaps England's biggest 'what if' of the 21st century.”

Absolutely. He was 26 when he was sent off at Trent Bridge in 2005.

“I have very fond memories of the summer of 2004. “And not just because of the Edgbaston trophy that still hangs in the living room,” says Tom Hopkins, “Freddie was at the peak of his powers, hunting down tough targets so efficiently and with a growing feeling that 'maybe we can do something against Australia'. I suppose sometimes a shadow is projected onto the future.”

Even if the destination is important, I think the journey is fun in many ways. Winning in South Africa when England were far from their best was probably the highlight of the last few decades.

Team news

Sri Lanka win the toss and bowl

The Oval is dry and cloudy (for now)first day of the bowl, definitely.

Would you like to play for England? In first-class cricket, you start by averaging 60. Twenty-year-old Josh Hull joins Shoaib Bashir in being selected for his attributes rather than his average: six feet seven inches tall, left-handed, bowls at over 80 miles per hour and swings to right-handers. In modern terms, his potential is enormous.

Hull has just been presented with his Test cap by Andrew Flintoff and if you want to feel really old, remember he turned one in the 2005 Ashes.

preamble