Author Photo
Chris Woakes
Chris Woakes

Things got interesting at The Oval on Day 2 of the third Test between England and Sri Lanka as the lead pacer of the English bowling attack, Chris Woakes got innovative and switched to some off-spin in the middle of his over.

The incident happened in the 7th over of the Sri Lankan innings when Woakes was in the fourth over of his spell. Just on the next ball after the mix-up between Dimuth Karunaratne and Pathum Nissanka where the former got run out, courtesy of a direct hit from Olly Stone which kept Karunaratne stranded on 6999 Test runs.

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Why did Chris Woakes bowl off-spin against Sri Lanka?

On the 6.3 over the mark, as Kusal Mendis walked into bat, the umpires, citing dangerous conditions for the batters, talked to Ollie Pope and Woakes to tell them about the bad light conditions which meant that England could not bowl pacers anymore until the playing conditions got better for the batters.

After completing the rest of the over with spin, the umpires gave a thumbs up to Gus Atkinson to bowl pace from the other end and the regular play continued. The Warwickshire speedster was allowed to bowl fast from the next over.

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As of the time of writing, Sri Lanka, in the pursuit of England's first innings total of 325 runs, find themselves 132/5 at the Tea while captain Dhananjaya de Silva and Kamindu Mendis try to hold the fort for them.

Read More: When does the Border-Gavaskar trophy start? Full schedule for next Australia vs India five-match Test series.

England have won the ongoing series with back-to-back wins in the first two Tests in Manchester and The Lord's respectively and are in the pole position to make it 3-0. On the other hand, Sri Lanka is playing for pride and will try to salvage something in the series.

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Author(s)
Mayank Bande Photo

Mayank Bande is a content producer for The Sporting News’ India edition.