First Test: Sri Lanka v England in Galle, 6/11/18.

[bigfluffylemon]

Last player to score a ton on his first innings in Tests was Prithvi Shaw, all of a month ago.

Last for England was Keaton Jennings, all of two years ago. Before that it was Matt Prior, in 2007.

Don't forget Trott!

Century on debut is no guarantee of future success, but England's last five were Jennings, Trott, Prior, Cook and Strauss. Four out of those five became part of the best England team I've seen in my lifetime. Not a bad hit rate.

[Arthur Crabtree]

Trott was the second innings though. Memorable debut ton all the same.

[backfootpunch]

Wicket keeping of Ben Foakes was up to the mark. First your of Asia so probably he has kept so many overs of spin for first time in his career. Not a single dropped chance. The stumping was executed successfully as well as a catch standing up was taken below knee level.
He looks to be a very well equipped keeper for such surfaces. Will be interesting to see if he can perform to same level when the ball turns like it is expected on Asian day 4 and day 5 wicket. Second innings will be important. So far very good. Obviously he should be given some leeway if he let's byes or misses odd chance when ball starts to shoot or turn sharply off the rough sometime during this series. Even the Asian keepers have not been immaculate when the wickets have deteriorated here. For his better experience he would probably like to have this challenge in this test itself.

Sam Curran too had a dream debut in England. He too will be keen to prove he can contribute in unfamiliar conditions. He did give a handy contribution with the bat.
Even Jack Leach contributed well enough this innings. The debutants have done good without experience of Asia behind them. Three England newbies have stood up.

SL have been flop after thrashing South Africa. How soon the performance has reduced for them.

I'm guessing foakes will have kept on England lions tours to Asia

[bigfluffylemon]

Three tours apparently, and some club cricket.

[meninblue]

Happy Diwali to all our Hindu posters

Thank you, Durham.

[meninblue]

Bright sky. Players entering the ground on time.

[meninblue]

Chandimal is not on field.

[meninblue]

Keaton has not been impressive on backfoot against spin. He got out trying to cut on backfoot against spinner in first innings. Now too he is not able to make full use of bad short ball bowled by spinner. The control and placement was lacking.

[meninblue]

Good over from Dilruwan. Making Rory play all the deliveries on off stump line. Well bowled.

Rory again comes down the wicket to smother the spin while also trying to score a single. Totally misses connecting with the ball only to get hit on the pads. This is his fourth attempt down the wicket to spinner in this test. Many players usually come down the wicket to strike a six. He comes down with a different approach.

[meninblue]

Wicket still a batsman friendly one. England should look to score 300 atleast. Anything less than that will be bad batting.

[meninblue]

England 50/0 in 18 overs. Good opening stand. Apart from the one bad hook which Rory scooped in air in no fielder zone, this has been a decent partnership.

[meninblue]

Rory seems to be more risk taking or strokeplayer. tries a lot of things like coming down the wicket, the reverse sweep as well. Whereas Keaton uses his height to smother spin and plays less strokemaking shots.

[meninblue]

Wicket keeping of Ben Foakes was up to the mark. First your of Asia so probably he has kept so many overs of spin for first time in his career. Not a single dropped chance. The stumping was executed successfully as well as a catch standing up was taken below knee level.
He looks to be a very well equipped keeper for such surfaces. Will be interesting to see if he can perform to same level when the ball turns like it is expected on Asian day 4 and day 5 wicket. Second innings will be important. So far very good. Obviously he should be given some leeway if he let's byes or misses odd chance when ball starts to shoot or turn sharply off the rough sometime during this series. Even the Asian keepers have not been immaculate when the wickets have deteriorated here. For his better experience he would probably like to have this challenge in this test itself.

Sam Curran too had a dream debut in England. He too will be keen to prove he can contribute in unfamiliar conditions. He did give a handy contribution with the bat.
Even Jack Leach contributed well enough this innings. The debutants have done good without experience of Asia behind them. Three England newbies have stood up.

SL have been flop after thrashing South Africa. How soon the performance has reduced for them.

I'm guessing foakes will have kept on England lions tours to Asia

[meninblue]

Three tours apparently, and some club cricket.

His cricinfo profile mentions Colts cricket club which is SriLankan domestic cricket team.So he definitely has been in SL before.

[bigfluffylemon]

Decent start. England probably only need another 150 runs for the game to be in the bag, so no need to do anything stupid. Just grind out the runs.

That said, the forecast for the next two days suggests that the weather may save Sri Lanka. There may be no play at all on Friday if the BBC forecast is to believed.