3rd Test, England lose seven wickets for 64 runs: Stats
Sri Lanka staged a remarkable comeback on the second day of their ongoing Test match against England at The Oval. After a disappointing first day, the visitors bounced back to bowl out England for 325. The home side had resumed at an overnight score of 221/3. Sri Lanka's four-man pace attack shared eight wickets, while captain Dhananjaya de Silva claimed two with his off-spin.
England's batting collapse and Sri Lanka's improved performance
England experienced a significant batting collapse, losing six wickets for just 35 runs in 56 balls. This was largely due to poor shot selection and falling into traps set by Sri Lanka's bowlers. England lost Harry Brook on a score of 261. Thereafter, centurion Ollie Pope and Jamie Smith added 29 runs. Smith departed with the score reading 290. England saw Chris Woakes (299/6), Gus Atkinson (307/7), Pope (307/8), Josh Hull (318/9) and Shoaib Bashir (325/10) fall in the collapse.
Pope's standout performance amid England's batting struggles
Pope was the standout performer for England, pushing his overnight score of an unbeaten 103 to 154. He ended with 19 fours and two sixes, having faced 156 balls. Notably, his strike read was a handsome 98.71. In addition to Pope's century, Ben Duckett scored 86 on Day 1. These were the only two batters with 20-plus scores for the hosts. The next best score was Brook's 19.
Milan Rathnayake finishes with a three-fer
Milan Rathnayake, who dismissed Duckett on Day 1, took two wickets on Day 2. He got the wickets of Brook and Bashir. He finished with figures worth 3/56 from 13.1 overs. Meanwhile, Dhananjaya got the wickets of Woakes and Atkinson.
