While children around the country have been returning to school, England have played this Test as if the holidays were round the corner.
Victory is not yet out of reach, with Sri Lanka – nine wickets intact – needing another 125 on Monday to avoid a 3-0 whitewash. But faced with the chance to complete a first perfect summer in 20 years, Ollie Pope’s team have been complacent and careless in equal measure.
Only Jamie Smith, who has enjoyed a superb first season at Test level, escaped censure as England – armed with a lead of 62 – were dismissed in their second innings for 156, their lowest total at home for two years.
And well though Sri Lanka bowled, with honorary mentions for the bustling seam of Lahiru Kumara and the left-arm swing of Vishwa Fernando, England did little to heed coach Brendon McCullum’s recent plea for a ‘refinement’ of their approach.
Ben Duckett was caught trying to clear mid-on, which is not his shot, while Pope chopped on just before lunch – a lame dismissal after his first-innings 154.
Ollie Pope and Joe Root were left frustrated as England struggled against Sri Lanka
Jamie Smith’s performance offered some encouragement amid England’s disappointment
Dan Lawrence managed to reach 35 before he was dismissed following a wild drive
Dan Lawrence, meanwhile, tried to slog his way out of his trough, and somehow got as far as 35 before edging a wild drive at Kumara, who sent him on his with some choice observations.
A series haul of 120 runs at 20 has confirmed fears that Lawrence, a middle-order strokemaker, was ill-suited to the specific demands made of a Test opener. Even so, his innings was an admission of defeat.
Even so, at 56 for three, England led by 118 – a handy buffer. But now the game took a decisive turn. Two balls after passing Kumar Sangakkara’s tally of 12,400 to become the sixth-leading run-scorer in Test history, Joe Root was pinned by a swinging full toss from Fernando for 12.
In his next over, Fernando visited the same fate on Harry Brook, Having played for Yorkshire earlier in the season, he had removed their two prize assets in the space of seven balls.
Chris Woakes edged Kumara behind for a duck, and when Gus Atkinson played round his front pad and was leg-before to Milan Rathnayake, England – 82 for seven – had lost five for 26.
Smith’s response was world-class, earning praise from the former Australian captain Ricky Ponting, who has been commentating on this Test for Sky and will take home a few words of warning.
In 18 balls of mayhem, Smith pulled and crunched 42, before hitting the last delivery before tea to midwicket. But his 50-ball 67 had given England something to bowl at.
They may wonder, though, how they ever needed something to bowl at in the first place. Because there were two moments in this Test from which England ought to have ensured against defeat.
England’s fielding was slipshod, with Olly Stone dropping another catchable chance
Josh Hull has had some good moments but has mostly looked like a novice on the big stage
First, when they were 261 for three on the second morning, only to blow their last seven wickets for 64.
Second, when they reduced Sri Lanka to 93 for five, but let them off the hook by keeping their spinners on too long in the gloom. Before the umpires stepped in with their light meters, the 69 runs milked by Dhananjaya de Silva and Kamindu Mendis put a different complexion on the game.
England may argue things would have been different if Josh Hull hadn’t dropped a dolly at mid-on when de Silva had 23 of his eventual 69.
But their fielding, too, has been slipshod, with Olly Stone dropping another catchable chance even while Sri Lanka’s last five first-innings wickets were polished off for 43 on the third morning.
England, it should be said, are allowed a couple of bad days at the end of a Test summer in which five wins, plus the emergence of Smith and Gus Atkinson – who has struggled in this game with a quad injury – have provided a positive start to the second phase of the Bazball project.
But too much of their cricket in this game has crossed the much-cited line between positivity, which is a Bazball trait, and recklessness, which isn’t.
Frankly, after the first day, England relaxed. The batting of Brook in the first innings, Duckett in the second, and Lawrence in both, has sold them short.
And it has left former captains to voice the concerns of fans. Michael Vaughan urged England not to ‘take the mickey out of the game’ after the second day, while Alastair Cook said Brook typified England’s ‘complacent’ approach.
Ex-skipper Mark Butcher was heavily critical of England’s performance, calling it ‘shocking’
On Sunday night, a third ex-skipper, Mark Butcher, described their performance as ‘shocking’ after a second innings that lasted 34 overs – the equivalent of barely a session.
The selection of Hull, too, has encouraged accusations that England have played fast and loose with the cricketing gods. He bounced out de Silva early in the day, then trapped Vishwa with his left-arm inswing. Otherwise he has looked what he is: a novice asked to learn on the biggest stage. His 14 maiden-free overs so far have gone for 76.
England might have wriggled free of criticism had they knocked over Sri Lanka’s top order as the shadows lengthened. But Pathum Nissanka blazed a 42-ball half-century, and all there was to show for 15 expensive overs was Woakes’s return catch to dismiss Dimuth Karunaratne. The tourists will resume on 94 for one.
Sri Lanka’s only previous visit to The Oval, in 1998, produced 16 wickets for Muttiah Muralitharan and a famous win. Now, they are set to give England a wake-up call in the nick of time before a testing winter.
