England restricted Sri Lanka to what seemed like a gettable total of 256-8, before collapsing in abject fashion yet again
5.01pm BST
Gosh.
5.01pm BST
Thanks all for your comments and company - see you on Wednesday.
5.00pm BST
Gosh.
4.53pm BST
"Abysmal, really", says Eoin Morgan.
4.53pm BST
You've got to admire it, really - making that sort of mess is a very special skill. We are in the presence of greatness. Defer! Defer!
It's very easy to get stuck into sportsfolk - they live our dreams, for nice money. But, although they don't fail on purpose, it's reasonable to expect them to compete with honour, zest and courage. Today, they did not; rather, they produced a signature performance of profound and unshocking horrificity.
4.48pm BST
That = a very state.
4.47pm BST
That; the very state of.
4.47pm BST
The very state of that.
4.45pm BST
Anderson scythes across the line, and looks over to where he actually seems to think the ball is going. It is not; rather it kisses his off stump, and this is over, in 26.1 overs!
4.44pm BST
26th over: England 99-9 (Anderson 7, Gurney 4) Target 257
Eleven runs from the over - a top-edged six from Morgan, and then, from the final ball, Gurney bottom edges four.
4.40pm BST
Morgan gets much more of this one, but managed to locate the fielder, who manages to locate the ball prior to its bouncing - thanks to a decent dive.
4.38pm BST
25th over: England 84-8 (Morgan 34, Anderson 7) Target 257
Anderson has a go or two, before eventually swiping a reverse sweep backwards of point for four. And England then pass their lowest-ever score. Who says they can't deliver under pressure?
4.35pm BST
24th over: England 84-8 (Morgan 34, Anderson 3) Target 257
The crowd are singing the Righteous Brothers' You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'. Did they speak i' that way regularly? Prasad is back on, an' Anderso' is forced to fend him away, the ball staying airborne for a fair while but not going to hand. Then Morgan shmices six over mid off, and the PA plays I Just Can't Enough, a fair assessment of the situatio'.
4.30pm BST
23rd over: England 76-8 (Morgan 27, Anderson 2) Target 257
Morgan's slog-swept single gets Senanayake four deliveries at Anderson, and the field comes in. And he tries to force away on the back foot, missing, before nabbing a pair to deep backward square.
4.27pm BST
Senanayake, who is enjoying a superb sojourn through the afternoon, tosses one up to tempt Tredwell into taking a swing that his back can't cash. So he takes a swing that his bat can't cash, holing out to long off. Played.
4.26pm BST
22nd over: England 73-7 (Morgan 26, Tredwell 4) Target 257
If Morgan bats through, this is still doable. But at the moment, he can't get the ball off the square, Mathews - a bowler he might fancy targeting - bouncing through another over.
4.23pm BST
21st over: England 71-7 (Morgan 25, Tredwell 3) Target 257
Senanayake is an interesting bowler, flicking them out the front of the hand with a kind of thumb-forefinger snap. It's compelling stuff, because he can skid them on, and also move the ball both ways.
4.20pm BST
20th over: England 69-7 (Morgan 25, Tredwell 1) Target 257
Dilshan fancies a twirl - and a Twirl, I shouldn't wonder. Morgan clumps a four through midwicket. Well done him. How might one punish performances of this ilk?
4.17pm BST
19th over: England 63-7 (Morgan 20, Tredwell 0) Target 257
Dan Lucas informs me that England's lowest ODI score is 86, so they're in with a real shot here. Good luck, mates.
4.14pm BST
No, out - the ball was hitting leg stump, three quarters of the way up. This is some magnificent abjectivity!
4.13pm BST
The ball might have deviated too much. As if.
4.13pm BST
Jordan's pinned inside his crease - the ball seemed to swing as much as spin - and that looked very out, though not very unique.
4.12pm BST
18th over: England 62-6 (Morgan 19, Jordan 1) Target 257
This is, I'm afraid, a shambles of a nonsense. England have batted without fibre, conviction, intensity and joy. Mathews, meanwhile, perhaps mindful of Jordan's bowling on Thursdaym chucks down some short stuff, and Morgan helps himself to a four through midwicket.
4.07pm BST
Mathews' first ball sticks a little, and the consequence is a tennis ball bounce that means Buttler hits on the up, miscuing towards mid-off. Senanayake pursues, dives forwards, and holds a tricky catch.
4.06pm BST
17th over: England 55-5 (Morgan 14, Butler 4) Target 257
The run rate isn't yet daunting, but is climbing - 6.12 now. Fine for these two, and Jordan as well, but it's during this partnership that the majority of runs will making.
4.02pm BST
16th over: England 53-5 (Morgan 12, Butler 4) Target 257
Bopara's footwork has not gone down at all well with Athers, and one can only contemplate what his lad made of it. Anyway, Buttler gets off the mark by thrashing a wide one through cover - this is a real chance for him to show the ability to build an innings under pressure.
3.58pm BST
15th over: England 46-5 (Morgan 11, Butler 0) Target 257
"Hey, it's the Waitrose era", rejoinders Erik Petersen. "England need all the luxury bits and pieces they can find."
3.56pm BST
Well. This is an excellent delivery, it might well have pitched on the seam, and it jags more than spins, before Bopara, pushing around off stump, is bowled through the gate.
3.52pm BST
14th over: England 46-4 (Morgan 11, Bopara 7) Target 257
A kind of short not-bouncer, and Morgan's eyelids light up, the ball crunched to the fence via pull. "We found love in a hopeless place", shouts the PA - can anyone beat a City law firm? Four dots to end the over.
3.48pm BST
13th over: England 42-4 (Morgan 7, Bopara 7) Target 257
Spin it doth arrive, Senanayake, "another of these bent-arm bowlers", into the attack. This all looks very innocuous, and yet there's only one run located, from the final delivery.
3.44pm BST
12th over: England 41-4 (Morgan 6, Bopara 7) Target 257
Prasad's third ball is short and wide, also sitting up, and like three bare chested men walk down the street, singing Three Lions, it begs to be hit. Bopara does his civic duty.
3.40pm BST
11th over: England 37-4 (Morgan 6, Bopara 3) Target 257
Dilshan, who's taken off his under-the-cap beanie, now that everyone's had a good old chuckle about the characters of the game, dives to stop Morgan's drive at backward point. And he's involved again shortly afterwards, when Bopara strokes through the covers (fnarr, etc), again saving a boundary. Still, when two come from the final ball, that's six from the over.
3.35pm BST
10th over: England 31-4 (Morgan 4, Bopara 0) Target 257
Prasad on, an a wide moves the scoreboard for the first time in time. In tiiiiiime, man, bare time. And what's this! Another? It's there!
3.31pm BST
9th over: England 29-4 (Morgan 2, Bopara 0) Target 257
Kulasekara has really found his tattva here, at the start of this over, his figures read 4-2-9-3 - and eight of that nine came from his first. Sangakkara is standing up now, and there's a short-leg in - the plan is to draw Bopara forward. But he plays the over well enough, and though it's yet another maiden, England won't worry about the score at this poin - they're just trying to avoid loss of wicket.
3.26pm BST
8th over: England 29-4 (Morgan 2, Bopara 0) Target 257
Malinga is enjoying this, crowding Morgan with a three short ones and keeping an excellent line. That's another maiden.
3.22pm BST
7th over: England 29-4 (Morgan 2, Bopara 0) Target 257
A wicket maiden, and England are in a situation. Please show empathy and sympathy by sending in details of your own.
3.19pm BST
Plumb, and plumbing. Kulasekara persuades one to straighten just enough, Ballance doesn't move his feet, and the ball wallops his pad about shin height at the height of adjacence. The Finisher is in in the seventh over.
3.16pm BST
6th over: England 29-3 (Ballance 4, Morgan 2) Target 257
Morgan gets himself off the mark with a bop to cover, then Malinga finishes the over with a homing bouncer. It's not that quick, but is highly sharp and nearly has Morgan sniffing cork.
3.13pm BST
Oh dear - this is all rather familiar. Root goes back when he should come forward to a length ball, which pins him on the crease, squares him, and consequently clunks his westernmost timber as he plays down the wrong line.
3.12pm BST
5th over: England 26-2 (Ballance 4, Root 0) Target 257
After a dodgy first over, Kulasekara has done well - England are in the beginnings of trouble. Beefy reckons that there wasn't quite the pace on the delivery to play the shot that cost Bell his wicket, and also that it was an unnecessary risk in the context. He'll be delighted to know that I'm minded to agree, so has no need to inquire as to the number of Test wickets I've taken.
3.08pm BST
Bell tries to run one down to third man, and instead, runs one down to the keeper's gloves. That was good-1.
3.06pm BST
4th over: England 24-1 (Bell 11, Ballance 4) Target 257
Malinga third delivery is a special, hurled at Bell and then dipping, somehow missing everything. Then, after a single, Ballance flashes at a wide one, ther ball scudding to the point fence.
3.01pm BST
3rd over: England 19-1 (Bell 10, Ballance 0) Target 257
Kulasekara immediately goes around the wicket to Ballance, who immediately looks comfortable.
2.59pm BST
Kulasekara eventually finds his line on middle-and-leg, and presto, some swing to. Carberry is slightly squared, the ball does enough to brush the presented face and edge, and is easily caught behind. What was a good start is now less so.
2.57pm BST
2nd over: England 17-0 (Carberry 6, Bell 10) Target 257
Malinga in from the other end, and a misfield at second slip get Bell a couple. Then, he drives hard through cover - oddly, the ball doesn't go for four. Malinga then no-balls by at least the length of a ridiculous curly moptop, and Carberry forces the free hit through the off-side, that's treemo.
2.51pm BST
1st over: England 8-0 (Carberry 3, Bell 5) Target 257
This a great start for England, Carberry turning one off his legs for three. And the next ball is a long hop, also doesn't swing, and Bell crunches it through point for four. This is an enormous, huge, 110% summer for me for Bell - he's easily the most natural batsman England have, and his play last summer was, over the course of a series, the best by an Englishman since Gower in 1985. But will he bat at three, and can he recapture the flow?
2.46pm BST
Kulasekara to open, Carberry to face.
2.43pm BST
Sri Lanka are huddling. "This doesn't slip", apparently.
2.40pm BST
Otherwise, this Sri Lanka score is, I suppose, par - but if England bat well, they'll win. And it's looking like they have the genesis of a handy team here; Jordan is laying it down in almost every game, Gurney adds variation - especially important given the spin situation - and Ballance has a lot more than he's shown so far. Add to this the more established players and the clean hitting of Buttler, and suddenly you've the hint of a recovery.
2.34pm BST
Afternoon all. ODIs, then. Outside of the World Cup, do they have a purpose in and of themselves, or do they exist almost entirely to test players prior to Test selection?
2.16pm BST
Right that's it from me. Daniel Harris is all done with the tennis and will be settling into the OBO chair shortly. You can get him on daniel.harris.casual@theguardian.com. Bye!
2.15pm BST
Chris Jordan then, to bowl the final over. It's all a bit of a mess now, with the batsmen belying their place in the order with some wild and wooly swinging that's barely managing to connect with the ball. Jordan's brilliant ball to get rid of Dilshan really did kill their hopes of a huge, imposing target. The batsmen are in two minds whether or not to slog or to work it into the gaps and as such can only manage seven runs from the over.
It wasn't a brilliant innings from Sri Lanka but you have to admire some of the England bowling. There were too many wides but they never made it easy to score and Sri Lanka's batsmen were always chasing them. Special mention has to go to Jimmy Anderson, whose figures of 10-1-38-2 reflect just how well he bowled.
2.08pm BST
49th over: Sri Lanka 249-8 (Senanayake 1 Prasad 1) Poor again from Gurney, who has been something of a curio today. He presents Chandimal with a gift, overpitched outside off stump, before a much better yorker cramps him up and it's slapped into the grateful mitts of Bopara at cover. In at nine comes Senanayake, whose average of 17 and batting position both make a farce of his description as an all-rounder. He gets off the mark with a single before Kulasekara goes for the big slog, only to pick out Root at deep mid on, where the
12 year old work experience kid
fielder holds on. Prasad is the next man and gets a single.
2.07pm BST
Collapse time.
2.05pm BST
...
2.02pm BST
48th over: Sri Lanka 243-6 (Chandimal 10 Kulasekara 0) Jimmy Anderson, who has impressed today, will bowl the final over. He's packed the leg-side with five fielders, which means that he can follow the batsman backing away to leg with far more certainty. He gets the wicket with a short one, before Chandimal whacks a front-foot hoik through mid wicket for four. That's the first boundary scored off of Anderson's bowling today. Indeed it'll be the last after Anderson gets away with another bouncer above head height. England's wides tally should be even more grim than it is.
1.59pm BST
Jimmy digs one in short and Priyanjan, looking to slog over cow corner, is cramped for space and doesn't connect with the ball properly. Consequently, up it loops and in swoops Cap'n Morgan to catch it.
1.55pm BST
47th over: Sri Lanka 235-5 (Chandimal 2 Priyanjan 43) Chandimal is the new man and he gets a single from his first ball. Gurney whose propensity for slower balls means he's been described as taking Jade Dernbach's role emulates Jade Dernbach by sending down a slow, wide full toss that's chopped up and over backward point for four by Priyanjan. The batsman goes for the same area from the next ball and it's very well chased down and reigned in by Carberry.
1.52pm BST
Gurney drops it in outside off and Mathews slaps it straight to Bopara on the edge of the circle. Ravi holds on to it comfortably this time and, as well he should, looks mighty relieved.
1.50pm BST
46th over: Sri Lanka 225-4 (Mathews 30 Priyanjan 36) This is an edgy contest between batsman and bowler now, with Mathews and Priyanjan looking to back away and make room and Jordan following them nicely. It's been a weirdly one-paced innings this, the run rate having barely changed throughout. Maybe it will now though as Priyanjan moves outside leg and bends down to play the reverse scoop around the corner for four runs. He's a handy looking player, this guy. Jordan is wided for another high bouncer, something he's sent down far too often today.
Near calamity from the final ball as Priyanjan blocks it and, in looking to take the quick single, kicks the ball down to Jordan whose throw goes wide of the stumps.
1.43pm BST
45th over: Sri Lanka 215-4 (Mathews 26 Priyanjan 31) Sri Lanka look to work Anderson around again, which is fine for the middle overs but it does put the pressure on to attack the other bowlers at this stage of the innings. Oh no this is very poor: Mathews lofts one weakly to cow corner where Ravi Bopara lets it slip through his hands. That was an utter dolly and not the first mistake by Bopara in the field today.
1.40pm BST
44th over: Sri Lanka 209-4 (Mathews 24 Priyanjan 27) At The Oval, England hit 93 from the last seven overs and the man who was responsible for 38 of them is back on to bowl: Chris Jordan's first ball is overpitched and drilled back down the ground for four by Mathews. He follows that up with a huge bouncer that's somehow not called a wide. Then it's a full-toss on leg stump, which again he gets away with. Another wide down leg now, this is getting ridiculous. Wides have now contributed more runs than Thirimanne and Jayawardene combined. It's been a poor over from Jordan and he's largely got away with it, although Mathews opens the face and, with no third man, runs the final ball down to the boundary for four more. 250 is easily on here.
1.33pm BST
43rd over: Sri Lanka 196-4 (Mathews 13 Priyanjan 23) Jimmy Anderson is the new man and the clouds are rolling back over Chester-le-Street. Anderson drifts leg side and Priyanjan clips him over the top, in front of square on the leg side but it's cut off. Anderson is struggling a bit to follow the batsman backing away to leg, resulting in yet another wide delivery. All told though, seven from yet another uneventful over isn't a bad return at all for the bowler.
1.29pm BST
Sorry guys, if you refresh the page it'll correct the score.
1.28pm BST
42nd over: Sri Lanka 189-4 (Mathews 11 Priyanjan 22) Still bright sunshine out there even though the rain was expected about now. Ravi Bopara is back and Priyanjan gets the loft wedge out, but can't get a clean hit on Ravi's excellent yorker and just chips it down the ground. In fact he's going to change his bat after that. The final ball is short, wide filth but as has been the case so often today, the batsmen can't do owt with it and just four come from the over.
1.24pm BST
41st over: Sri Lanka 185-4 (Mathews 9 Priyanjan 20) Tredwell's back and we finally get a six, Priyanjan dancing down the track and hitting it straight over the top. They're checking whether it's six or four and the umpires decide it thudded straight on to the padding on the rope. Six more thanks to a slog sweep from the final ball, dragged wide over cow corner and Tredwell finishes with 1-57 from his ten overs.
1.20pm BST
40th over: Sri Lanka 169-4 (Mathews 7 Priyanjan 6) Jordan, with overs to spare, carries on and induces another play-and-miss. Priyanjan, who looks to have a good, strong, orthodox cover drive, drills one straight at Bopara along the ground and Ravi lets it slip through him for a couple. Then the good, strong, orthodox Priyanjan slashes at a wide one and sends it high in the air towards the wide third man Gurney, who dives forward and puts an eminently catchable catch down. Bah! Lovely follow-up ball from Jordan beats the edge and the powerplay has yielded 1-24 for England, which is an excellent return.
1.15pm BST
39th over: Sri Lanka 166-4 (Mathews 7 Priyanjan 3) Gurney finds the edge of Mathews' bat with one angled across the right-hander, but it rolls along the ground and through a vacant slip cordon for a single to third man. Truly in the style of his full-time captain, Eoin Morgan locks that barn door by moving a slip into place. Gurney bowls another wide, the tenth of the innings I reckon, but other than that it's another good over for England. Looks like WASP's prediction/arbitrary guess of 250 might [GASP!] be out.
1.10pm BST
38th over: Sri Lanka 161-4 (Mathews 5 Priyanjan 1) Jordan's delivery to get rid of Dilshan was a thing of beauty. First ball of the over and he gets it to nip back a mile off the seam, whizz through the gap and lop the head off of middle stump as though it were Ned Stark. Priyanjan, not someone I know a great deal about I'm afraid, is the new man and off the mark with a single. This has been a great powerplay from England so far and, with Mathews looking scratchy, Sri Lanka's excellent platform is in danger of going to waste.
1.05pm BST
Sorry, Robert Wilson.
1.04pm BST
37th over: Sri Lanka 159-3 (Mathews 4 Dilshan 88) As expected, it'll be Gurney from the other end. He bowls short and Dilshan hammers a pull out towards the rope, but Bell slides across to prevent the four. Aside from an earlier mistake by Root, England's ground fielding has been excellent today. You can't say that about Gurney's bowling in this over though as he drops short and wide to Dilshan, who upper-cuts over backward point for four. Another poor short one finishes the over, but it's pulled straight to the fielder.
"Where's the love for Dilshan?" asks Robert Wilson. "He often does this - nurdles and nudges like it's a hungover breakfast and then gives it some fearsome wellie. It feels like he's taking a run-up here."
1.00pm BST
36th over: Sri Lanka 152-3 (Mathews 4 Dilshan 81) Right, it's powerplay time and that means a recall for Chris Jordan to the attack. I've just realised that my score and Cricinfo's differ from Sky's the broadcaster have attributed that 34th over boundary to Dilshan rather than Mathews, whereas Cricinfo agree with me. Anyhow, Jordan sends one down the leg side and it's called a wide. Oddly low-key approach to powerplay batting, this, from Sri Lanka. Ah Cricinfo have corrected their score now, so I guess I'll do the same. Sorry about that, folks. The 150 comes up for Sri Lanka with just eight fours and one six. Another wide from Jordan and these are starting to rack up now; two in that set o' six ruining an otherwise immaculate over.
Good shot of Mahela's run out. pic.twitter.com/lRspM4PDXS
12.52pm BST
35th over: Sri Lanka 145-3 (Mathews 5 Dilshan 75) Tredwell isn't going to bowl through after all then as, after nine straight overs, he's replaced by Joe Root. He bowls a short wide one that Dilshan misses out on, before nearly getting his man with the next ball as a miscued chip falls into no-man's land. Oh dear he gets away with it again as a waist-high full toss on Mathews' hips is turned around straight to the fielder at fine leg. That might be the worst over ever to get away with going for just one run.
12.49pm BST
34th over: Sri Lanka 144-3 (Mathews 5 Dilshan 74) Advantage England then, as Ravi comes back? I'd reckon they need to get rid of Dilshan, who has been relatively restrained today by his own standards. If he's there with ten overs to go and his team have seven wickets left, then you know what mood he'll be in. Just five boundaries in his inning so far. Mathews gets one though with a nice pull shot, right out the middle and along the floor through square leg.
12.45pm BST
33rd over: Sri Lanka 137-3 (Mathews 1 Dilshan 73) Angelo Mathews comes in and works the final ball of the over for a single. That was very poor running from Jayawardene as he ambled back looking for the third run, but a great throw from Ballance.
12.43pm BST
Oh this is excellent fielding from Ballance. The ball was chopped down to the boundary rope and looked to be running away for four, but Ballance chased it down and seemed to be the only person on the pitch to notice that Jayawardene was out of his ground. The throw came in to Buttler, Mahela didn't dive and he was a good eight inches short.
12.38pm BST
32nd over: Sri Lanka 132-2 (Jayawardene 1 Dilshan 70) Jimmy's back and there doesn't appear to be even a modicum of swing available to him. You'd think that Sri Lanka's bowlers will find it hard to extract swing in the second innings, what with it being later in the day, but then if we do get rain as apparently we're likely to in an hour or so then there could well be some lingering cloud cover when England get their innings underway.
12.35pm BST
31st over: Sri Lanka 129-2 (Jayawardene 0 Dilshan 68) Ah, here's Mahela Jayawardene. It's a much-needed wicket for England Athers says to put the brakes on, but really it's more to prolong the foot hovering over the accelerator rather than push down on it. I don't know, I don't drive, I can't do car analogies.
12.33pm BST
Hey! Tredwell flights one in at 48mph and Sangakkara's eyes light up. He goes down on one knee, pulls out the slog sweep and OH NO! gets a top-edge straight in the air and Buttler runs around to take the catch.
12.29pm BST
30th over: Sri Lanka 126-1 (Sangakkara 39 Dilshan 67) Good news: the sun is out and the clouds look to have drifted away slightly. It means Gurney isn't getting much swing, although the odd one is nipping about off the pitch. 4,000 tickets unsold for this match, and given Old Trafford is charging £35 for tickets it's perfectly understandable. Athers and Bumble have resorted to discussing the price of pasties at The Oval (£5), such is the interminability of the action if you can call it that on the pitch. It's a struggle to watch, I won't lie.
12.25pm BST
29th over: Sri Lanka 122-1 (Sangakkara 38 Dilshan 64) Flippant, lazy replies aside, I kinda see Gary's point there. In Durham, in May, anyone could have predicted that this would be a slow, low-scoring, strategic game rather than one of fireworks and sixes. Add to that the fact that it's probably going to rain, and £60 for the only international fixture of the summer in the north east does seem a bit off. Tredwell bowled that over, by the way.
12.23pm BST
28th over: Sri Lanka 118-1 (Sangakkara 36 Dilshan 62) Huzzah! Praise be! Eoin Morgan makes a bowling change and it's to bring Harry Gurney on for Bopara, albeit with a rather orthodox, defensive ring of fielders. Sangakkara gets hit under the arm as he wanders down the track to a short one and has an uncharacteristically wafty pull that fails to connect. But of movement off the seam back into the left-hander from the final ball, but still neither team looks keen to seize the day.
@DanLucas86 A match like this should be sold in the same way airlines sell tickets. How often do you see empty seats on a Ryanair flight?
12.18pm BST
27th over: Sri Lanka 114-1 (Sangakkara 34 Dilshan 60) I'm getting the feeling here that Morgan has a strategy in mind and, what with this being the biggest game he's captained as far as I can recall, he's not keen to deviate from it. I say this because Tredwell is continuing and continuing to get milked. Only three from the over but England really need wickets now and they're looking as threatening as Snow Patrol.
12.16pm BST
26th over: Sri Lanka 111-1 (Sangakkara 33 Dilshan 56) Here we go, Dilshan spots that fine leg is very wide and brings out the Dilscoop, which is a shot I invented years before him when playing with my cousin Jack in the local park so nerr. Bopara is carrying on, but with the batsmen looking increasingly confident you imagine that Morgan needs to shake his attack up a bit, and sharpish. Sri Lanka move quietly on to Nelson and look like they could set an imposing target from here.
12.12pm BST
25th over: Sri Lanka 104-1 (Sangakkara 32 Dilshan 52) Dilshan works Tredwell to mid-wicket and there's a delayed round of applause as the crowd eventually realise he's moved to his 35th ODI half century. And then a couple of balls later he nabs another single to finally bring up the Sri Lankan hundred. They'll be happy to have done so for the loss of just one wicket given the conditions. Sangakkara chips down the ground but it plugs in the slowest of outfields and they'll just pick up one for it.
"Regarding the Sky gizmo," writes Ian Copestake, "is it named thusly because it was tthought up by white anglo-saxon Protestants? And a very happy birthday to Gary!"
12.09pm BST
24th over: Sri Lanka 97-1 (Sangakkara 28 Dilshan 49) I might go and stick the new Coldplay album on.
12.06pm BST
23rd over: Sri Lanka 94-1 (Sangakkara 27 Dilshan 47) An oasis in the desert as Dilshan cuts a short, filthy ball from Tredwell through a gap and sees it trickle to the rope for four. The PA switches to Carly Rae Jepsen's brilliant slice of bubblegum pop 'Call Me Maybe', but reverts to the musical dross as Sangakkara steps down the track a couple of balls later and lofts it over mid on for four more. That takes the run rate above four and just a suggestion that Sri Lanka are ready to kick on.
12.02pm BST
22nd over: Sri Lanka 83-1 (Sangakkara 22 Dilshan 41) You have to ask yourself whether or not this England side is going to be as effective on the hard, hot, bouncy surfaces they're like to encounter at next year's World Cup. Gurney at least imparts enough over-spin on the ball to get good bounce, and Jimmy is good enough to be trusted, but is Bopara going to get hammered as fifth bowler out there?
11.59am BST
21st over: Sri Lanka 79-1 (Sangakkara 19 Dilshan 40) Great stop by Tredwell diving to his right as Dilshan looks to wallop the ball straight back past him. It's a very good over from Tredwell as he also finds Dilshan's inside edge and the opener is lucky not to play on.
11.56am BST
20th over: Sri Lanka 78-1 (Sangakkara 18 Dilshan 40) Of course having said all that, Sri Lanka do have wickets in hand and three rather good batsmen available to them. Still, Bopara is keeping them quiet for and it only takes one error etc. etc. Incidentally, Daniel Harris, who will be here later, is covering the tennis from Roland Garros here. Some dodgy fielding now as Sangakkara cuts towards the boundary, Anderson slides and stops it but then throws the ball miles wide of Gurney, who was running in to collect. That was a freebie.
11.53am BST
19th over: Sri Lanka 72-1 (Sangakkara 14 Dilshan 38) It's easy to mock this game for being slow and dull, but even in the relative absence of any chances being created you have to be impresses with the economy of England's bowlers they've all been quietly decent, going about their job in an unfussy way and asking the Sri Lankan batsmen to force the issue themselves. Thus far though they've declined to do so.
11.49am BST
18th over: Sri Lanka 68-1 (Sangakkara 12 Dilshan 36) This is real cricket, isn't it? The pinnacle of the game in the absence of any Test matches happening right now. In totally unrelated news, Mitchell Johnson is bowling to Kevin Pietersen in the IPL at the moment.
Here, Ravi Bopara bowls a filthy, short, wide one that Dilshan swings wildly at and misses out on four easy runs. The crowd cheers as they think Dilshan has offered a catch from the next ball to mid-off, but it's a bump ball. That first ball aside, this has been a very good over from Bopara, sending down four lovely, accurate yorkers. Indeed the only runs are a couple to mid-on from the final ball.
11.43am BST
17th over: Sri Lanka 66-1 (Sangakkara 12 Dilshan 34) Right, time for some spin now, which looks like a risky move. Tredwell has served England very well, but there was discussion during the last match over whether or not teams might have worked him out now, given that he's been a bit expensive of late. Having said that, there's a little turn for him here as he takes the pace off the ball and he first beats Sangakkara's prod and then from the next ball finds the edge, only for it to fly wide of slip. That's a good over, ceding just four runs.
11.39am BST
16th over: Sri Lanka 62-1 (Sangakkara 9 Dilshan 33) Close to a run out here as Sangakkara drops one into the gap on the offside and hares down the pitch only to notice Dilshan, who only just passed a fitness test on a groin strain this morning, was stood still. The single was definitely on, but Sanga had to turn and run back and was fortunate that Carberry's throw from square of the wicket was wide. Not sure where Buttler was there, mind, I reckon the run out was still on if he'd been backing up. Short ball from Jordan is swivel-pulled off the back foot for four through backward square leg by Dilshan.
11.35am BST
15th over: Sri Lanka 56-1 (Sangakkara 8 Dilshan 28) Bopara drops short to Dilshan and he swivel pulls towards the square-leg boundary, where Bell makes a good stop diving to his right. I reckon a decent score might depend on how many wickets England can take before they have to bring the spinners on, as I don't think there's going to be a lot for Tredwell and Root in this pitch and these two batsmen, if set, will happily take them on. Sangakkara gives Bopara's final ball the charge but changes his mind. Run rate is still below four and we've only had three boundaries.
11.31am BST
14th over: Sri Lanka 53-1 (Sangakkara 8 Dilshan 25) Ahh that's lovely from Sangakkara. Jordan strays wide outside his off stump and compounds that error by over-pitching, the batsman guiding it through the covers for four. It feels horribly crass that such a shot from such a player is greeted by the kind of club tune from the PA that you might expect to hear on a Friday night in a Wetherspoons in Milton Keynes. The good news for England is that the boundary brings the only runs of the over.
11.28am BST
13th over: Sri Lanka 49-1 (Sangakkara 4 Dilshan 25) Thrills! Spills! It's Ravi Bopara to bowl! Dilshan absolutely murders a single to mid-wicket! Four leg byes down to fine leg off the pad! A dot ball creamed to cover!
On Sky, meanwhile, the commentators have been expressing their surprise that it's not a full-house on this balmy 13-degree day in Durham. Tickets just £60!
11.22am BST
12th over: Sri Lanka 41-1 (Sangakkara 2 Dilshan 23) Looks like the "left-armer to Sangakkara" theory was a load of bunkum as Jordan carries on. Or perhaps Bumble and Botham have cottoned on to something that Eoin Morgan hasn't. There's a lot of discussion at the moment about Jordan's run up, which is something of an uncertain shuffle up to the crease before hurling everything into the delivery. There's a run out chance now as Sanga takes a quick single to mid off, but Jimmy's throw is just wide of the stumps. Would have been tight with a direct etc. etc. Incidentally the powerplay has passed by unnoticed. I can't see Sri Lanka run rate 3.42 decelerating from here.
11.17am BST
11th over: Sri Lanka 37-1 (Sangakkara 1 Dilshan 21) Anderson into his sixth straight over, so I guess he's not going to be bowling at the death. Given he's got 1-11 from the first five that sounds entirely sensible to me. Anderson sends down an excellent bouncer that beats Dilshan's pull shot; the prodigious swing Jimnmy was finding earlier has all but disappeared now.
Giles Page writes, "I might have missed a lot of the ramifications of the post-KP/Ashes fall out by virtue of being in New Zealand but why are Tredwell & Carberry still playing for England? Tredwell can't get a game for Kent (isn't he playing league stuff?) & Carberry can't score runs! What happened to looking a fresh options or looking at form players?"
11.13am BST
10th over: Sri Lanka 34-1 (Sangakkara 0 Dilshan 19) Cricket writers everywhere go weak at the knees as Kumar Sangakkara comes to the crease at the non-striker's end. Change of batsman, change of bowler is the order of the day as Chris Jordan replaces Gurney. His line is slightly off to begin with, a couple of deliveries on the pads that he's a bit lucky to get away with. On Sky, Bumble makes the excellent point that they might be switching Gurney's end to let him bowl to Sangakkara: he was dismissed twice by Ryan Sidebottom when playing for Durham this season and, as Sir Iron Bottom adds, it was Gurney who got him in the first ODI. He'll have to wait though as Dilshan's single is the only incident of the innings and means that the opener will keep the strike.
11.08am BST
9th over: Sri Lanka 33-1 (Dilshan 18) Anderson emulates Gurney in that he finds Thirimanne's edge with a back-of-a-length delivery, although he forgets to get hit for six from the next ball. It's a wicket maiden as none of the remaining deliveries offer anything from which to score, and indeed the last one swings away from the dangling bat and takes the edge, Tredwell snaffling it at second slip.
11.03am BST
8th over: Sri Lanka 33-0 (Thirimanne 10 Dilshan 18) Still no bowling changes. Gurney gets some bounce to Thirimanne and finds the splice of the bat, but it falls safely in front of the slips. "Bugger this," thinks Thirimanne and, out of nowhere, whacks a full delivery over mid wicket for six! "I've been impressed with some of the youngsters that have come in," says Botham. "Jordan, Gurney, don't know much about them." Including the fact that these "youngsters" are 25 and 27 respectively. That's a much-needed decent over for Sri Lanka, thanks to that six.
10.59am BST
7th over: Sri Lanka 24-0 (Thirimanne 3 Dilshan 17) Anderson continues as you'd expect and Dilshan drives him through mid-on where Joe Root dives and can only parry the ball. He's taken enough pace off it to ensure that it doesn't cost his side a boundary, but he's rightly annoyed with himself. There's a band of dark cloud amassing over the ground, but it looks like we should be OK when it comes to rain for now. Thirimanne gets a single to move his strike rate above 11.
Two different games at the moment when Dilshan and Thirimanne are on strike. #engvsl
10.55am BST
6th over: Sri Lanka 19-0 (Thirimanne 2 Dilshan 13) "Morning Dan," writes Alfred Moore in the absence of anything happening in the cricket. "Am I the only one who thinks Carberry is worth a run in the team? Age is just a number. If he's got good technique and stands up well to pace and pressure, which his first few tests this winter suggests he does, then he could give England at least three years of top level cricket. And that's not to be sniffed at. See Mike Hussey. It's refreshing to see the England management not just picking the latest hot teenager with the intention of grooming him for the 2021 Ashes."
It's a fair enough argument, but if you compare England's approach to opening an innings compared to the likes of India and Australia, you'd have to say that Alastair Cook's side look a little anachronistic. At 33, I'm not sure Carberry is ever going to adapt his game to become a destructive dasher at the top.
10.51am BST
5th over: Sri Lanka 17-0 (Thirimanne 1Dilshan 12) Dilshan is hit on the pads first up and there's a strangled, muted appeal as he was nowhere near in line. Nor was Anderson's second delivery, which swings down the leg side and gives up a wide. A round of applause then breaks out for Carberry as he makes a decent diving stop at gully to keep Dilshan to a single. It's fair to call this a low-key start to the game. Thirimanne finally gets a run as he turns a back-of-a-length delivery off his hips to move to one from 18 balls. Has Alastair Cook switched sides? There's a big appeal from the final ball as Anderson hits Dilshan on the pad again, getting it to nip back quickly off the seam, but it was too high and going down leg. Other than that, etc. etc.
10.46am BST
4th over: Sri Lanka 14-0 (Thirimanne 0 Dilshan 11) Dilshan gets the first boundary as Gurney overpitches outside off stump and is pushed with exquisite timing straight back down the ground. The next ball is on a much better length and there's a hint of tennis ball bounce as it lifts past Dilshan's outside edge. "Bugger that," thinks Dilshan though, driving slightly awkwardly past long off for four more next ball. "Bugger that," thinks Gurney with the fourth ball, beating Dilshan's outside edge on the drive. A single brings Thirimanne on strike but he can't score again.
10.42am BST
3rd over: Sri Lanka 5-0 (Thirimanne 0 Dilshan 2) So the formula for WASP, developed by these geniuses, is apparently the average score over the past 10 innings adjusted by commentator guesswork. That's it, I'm not reporting on that utter nonsense anymore. Anderson returns and Dilshan nudges another single off his pads to mid-on. The third ball goes to slip along the ground by way of the pad. I'd be tempted to keep Anderson on to Thirimanne for an extended spell here as the batsman doesn't have a clue how to score against him. Excellent over that, from Jimmy.
10.39am BST
2nd over: Sri Lanka 4-0 (Thirimanne 0 Dilshan 1) Harry Gurney, who's been quietly impressive in his two international appearances so far, will take the other new ball and he's finding a lot of movement too. He's not finding the tramlines on the batsman's crease though as he starts with a massive wide outside off, but hits the batsman with the next ball. First runs off the bat, at long last, as Dilshan tucks one off his pads to mid-on. Thirimanne gets the strike and he's struggling a bit against the swinging ball, as you might expect from a batsman unused to these conditions with an average of about 29. Just two from the over.
Here's the birthday boy:
@DanLucas86 Are the experts that put WASP together are the same as those who are so successful in predicting how pitches will play?
10.34am BST
1st over: Sri Lanka 2-0 (Thirimanne 0 Dilshan 0) It'll be Jimmy to get us underway, as you'd expect. It's a lovely sunny, albeit cool-looking day in Durham. Yes you can say what the temperature looks like. He starts with a good tight line that Thirimanne leaves, before getting one to swing an absolute mile away, called a wide outside the left-hander's off stump. Back to tight outside off, then back to a wide, albeit this time swinging down the leg side. There's something quite poetic about the symmetrical erraticism Jimmy's started with. His fourth legal delivery beats the forward prod of the batsman there's plenty of swing on offer here for Jimmy and those two wides suggest even he's surprised by how much it's moving. Indeed those two wides are the only runs from the over.
10.28am BST
On WASP:
"Yeah, we have this maths thing that we have been saying is brilliant but it doesn't really work so we have just made it up"
10.26am BST
It's a big day for the OBO today
too
. It's Gary Naylor's birthday! Happy birthday, Gary!
10.24am BST
Nick Knight reckons that 250 is a par score on this pitch, which has a little grass on it. I'm not that familiar with Sky's new WASP gimmick, but from what I can glean it's a bunch of people guessing what a good score is. Which, in the great pantheon of innovations, sits somewhere alongside my old answering machine that thanked the caller for their call after they'd hung up.
10.21am BST
Breaking news: According to Cricinfo, Lakmal has been ruled out of the rest of this series with a hamstring tear, but should be OK for the Tests.
10.17am BST
Here are the teams in full:
10.16am BST
There are no words.
And here is the Royal London mascot Gilbert..... pic.twitter.com/XIdtSyrEaE
10.05am BST
For Sri Lanka Lakmal and Perera are out, Dilshan is fit to bowl. Priyanjan and Prasad replace them.
10.04am BST
Toss news: England have won it and will bowl. Michael Carberry is in for Cook. Brilliant.
10.03am BST
The other option to replace Cook at the top of the order is Michael Carberry, although I'm not sure why on earth they'd do that. Carberry, likeable and decent player though he is, isn't really the future. He's pushing 34, hasn't quite set the world alight and is reported to have upset the ECB hierarchy with some things he said in this interview with our very own Donald McRae. Any reasons why he might get the nod today?
We also have a weather update: It's likely to start raining around 1pm.
9.55am BST
Barbs aimed at the ECB are always fun, aren't they?
Alastair Cook ruled out through injury, so his wife will captain the team today.
9.55am BST
Preamble
Morning folks. We've not got a lot of time until things get cracking at Chester-le-Street, and I haven't had much sleep thanks to the neighbours who were playing The Levellers The bleedin' Levellers! until 3 o'clock this morning at full volume, so you'll have to forgive the brevity of this preamble.
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