Ollie Pope quietened the doubters by hitting a record-setting century on his home ground as England kept up its dominance of Sri Lanka at the start of the third and final test of the series on Friday. (More Cricket News)
Filling in as captain for the injured Ben Stokes, Pope has already led England to a series victory over the Sri Lankans after wins at Old Trafford and Lord's but arrived at the Oval with question marks over his own form after knocks of 6, 6, 1 and 17.
Pope made amends with a run-a-ball 103 not out, becoming in the process the first batter in test history to hit each of his first seven centuries against different opponents.
Pope succeeded where Ben Duckett narrowly failed on a weather-affected Day 1 when England reached stumps in a strong position on 221-3 and Sri Lanka failed to take advantage of winning the toss and getting to bowl first under thick cloud cover and floodlights.
Duckett, an aggressive left-handed opener, played one scoop shot too many in an entertaining innings and fell for 86 – short of his fourth test century.
Shortly before, Duckett scooped Lahiru Kumara for a four in one over and a six in the next, while also uppercutting the pacer over the boundary
His boldness caught up with him when he lifted the ball behind him and meekly into the hands of wicketkeeper Dinesh Chandimal off Milan Rathnayake.
The day ended with boos — in reaction to the umpires taking the players off for bad light soon after a late tea was taken — turning into cheers as Pope walked off to an ovation after showing a return to form.
He was alongside Harry Brook, who was 8 not out, and has hit 13 fours and two sixes so far.
England is looking to complete a clean sweep of home test series in a summer for the first time since 2004, having previously beaten the West Indies 3-0 in July.
Joe Root has been the biggest threat to Sri Lanka after back-to-back centuries at Lord's but he went cheaply for 13, swishing at Kumara (2-81) and getting caught in the deep off a top edge.
There was a stoppage of around three hours either side of lunch because of bad light and then rain on what started — and ended — as a gloomy day in south London.
Given the conditions, Sri Lanka will be disappointed that England lost only the wicket of Dan Lawrence (5) before the umpires deemed the light too poor and took the players off barely an hour into the morning session, with only 15 overs bowled.
Lawrence, a makeshift opener while Zak Crawley is out injured, made only 9 and 7 at Lord's in the second test and didn't fare any better a week later across London.
It took him 11 balls to get off the mark and then he tried to flick a short-of-length delivery from Kumara into the leg side, only to misjudge it and top-edge to Pathum Nissanka coming in from gully.
Duckett made his 10th half-century in 26 tests, bringing the fifty up in 48 balls. He hit nine fours and two sixes in total against Sri Lanka's all-seam attack that looked ideal for the early conditions but didn't deliver.
England gave a debut to 20-year-old left-arm seamer Josh Hull, who has been fast-tracked into the squad despite taking only 16 first-class wickets in 10 matches in his career.
England coach Brendon McCullum has acknowledged it is a “hunch” and a “punt” to bring Hull into the team and is thinking ahead to wanting a left-armer in the attack for future series, including the Ashes next year.
Hull was given his first test cap by former England captain Andrew Flintoff and was seen having his photograph taken with his family on the field before play began
