LONDON: England’s right-arm pacer Chris Woakes bowled as an off-spinner on Day 2 of the ongoing third Test against Sri Lanka at The Oval on Saturday.
The rare incident took place in the seventh over of Sri Lanka’s first innings when the on-field umpires restricted the hosts from bowling fast due to bad light. Chris Woakes, who already bowled two deliveries, had to make an adjustment and bowl spin.
Chris Woakes made a surreal transition and decided to bowl as an off-spinner, leaving Joe Root in splits. As a spinner, the right-arm pacer got off to a good start, giving up only one run in his first two deliveries.
On his third delivery, Chris Woakes, a spinner, erred, pitching the ball terribly short, which allowed Kusal Mendis to draw it towards fine-leg for a four.
It started to get lighter soon after the seventh over ended, and the umpires let pace bowling to resume.
As a result, Chris Woakes resumed to bowl as a pacer and soon struck with an important scalp of Kusal Mendis, who managed to score 13 off 14 deliveries.
Chris Woakes set up Mendis with a good-length delivery in the channel and the ball, upon pitching, swung away just enough to take the shoulder of Mendis’ bat and flew to Harry Brook, who clung onto the chance in the slip cordon.
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When this story was filed Sri Lanka were 148/5 in 30 overs in response to England’s 325. Interim captain Pope led England from the front with a marathon 154-run knock, followed by opening batter Ben Duckett, who made a brisk 86 up the order on the opening day.
The rest of the England batters struggled against Sri Lanka bowlers and could manage modest contributions.
Milan Rathnayake starred with the ball for Sri Lanka, picking up three wickets, while Vishwa Fernando, Lahiru Kumara and Dhananjaya de Silva bagged two wickets each.
