The English pacer Chris Woakes was coerced to bowl off-spin against Sri Lanka on Day 2 of the final Test match. Taking part in the game being played at The Oval on Saturday, Woakes was spotted off-spin after visibility dropped in London due to bad light. Woakes decided to bowl spin in the opening spell, something that was shocking for the England batsman Joe Root during the game.
Woakes’ bowling action was quite identical to Root’s. The seamer took the bowl and kept on bowling half-trackers, finding it difficult to control his line and length. After the light improved, Woakes went back to his fast bowling and ended up taking the wicket of Kusal Mendis for 14. England dominated Day 2 of the match scalping three quick wickets in the first 15 overs against the Sri Lankan side.
STOP WHAT YOU’RE DOING!
Bad light means Chris Woakes is bowling spin pic.twitter.com/TPYSnwXiEN — England Cricket (englandcricket) September 7, 2024
Woakes managed to get the outside edge of Mendis in the 11th over of the game. Previously, England stand-in skipper Ollie Pope smashed 154, helping his team to post a total of 325 runs in the first innings. England were 290/4 at one point in time but then started losing quick wickets to get bowled out in 69.1 overs. The Sri Lankan bowlers looked in absolute control as they kept putting pressure on the English batters.
Stick to bowling seam, Wizz pic.twitter.com/o2bCIexRq6
— England Cricket (englandcricket) September 7, 2024
Sri Lanka (Playing XI): Pathum Nissanka, Dimuth Karunaratne, Kusal Mendis, Angelo Mathews, Dinesh Chandimal(w), Dhananjaya de Silva(c), Kamindu Mendis, Milan Priyanath Rathnayake, Lahiru Kumara, Vishwa Fernando, Asitha Fernando.
England (Playing XI): Daniel Lawrence, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope(c), Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jamie Smith(w), Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Olly Stone, Josh Hull, Shoaib Bashir.