The former England captain, Eoin Morgan, isn’t satisfied with the decision of the Test team’s captain, Ollie Pope, and the management to walk off towards the end of the third day during the second Test at Lord’s due to bad light. The day started with clouds hovering over the head, but it went quite dark as the visitors started their chase of 493 runs.
The two on-field umpires gave Pope the choice of bowling with his two spinners- Shoaib Bashir and part-timer Joe Root, under the lights but refused to bring back the pacers against the light watchman, Prabath Jayasuriya. The light improved a little, as quickly the ball was thrown to Matthew Potts and Olly Stone, who dismissed Pathum Nissanka before the spinners returned the act.
With 22 overs left in the day, the players walked off the field, with Pope seemingly trying to keep the shine in the new ball, which could prove to be valuable to the pacers at the start of the fourth morning.
Eoin Morgan puzzled at England’s decision to walk off with bad light
It was a notable change of decision in the side from Old Trafford in Manchester during the opening game of the three-match series, where they decided to keep on going with 12 consecutive overs from Bashir and Root as Sri Lanka’s number nine, Milan Rathnayake smashed 72 runs in his debut innings.
However, the World Cup-winning captain, Eoin Morgan, believes that the home sides should have kept the batters in the middle, who would have hated to bat against any sort of bowlers at that period of the day.
“I think it’s a questionable decision. The reason behind that is just the whole context of the last hour or so: it is dark. There’s a reason the seamers can’t bowl: it is dangerous for everybody concerned.” Eoin Morgan expressed at the Sky Sports coverage.
The veteran, who has led the white-ball England team for seven years, felt that they could have kept on going with their premium off-spinners, as the ball was spinning and bouncing a bit to make it harder for the batters.
“If you’re sitting in Sri Lanka’s changing room, you’re thinking, ‘Jeez the last place I want to be is out there with the bat in hand – facing anybody.‘ It’s a lose-lose situation.” Eoin Morgan reflected on the matter. “I understand the concern for the condition of the ball, but you’re talking about England’s premium finger-spinner in Shoaib Bashir, who needs to bowl. The ball is turning and bouncing.”
The 37-year-old Dublin-born also pointed out that even though Dimuth Karunaratne was at one end, they were bowling to the number nine batter in the form of Prabath Jayasuriya, who was there only to survive and the spinners could have easily made life uncomfortable for him.
“They’re bowling at a No. 9 at one end. Everything is in England’s favor. I question the decision (that) you have runs to play with, you have two or three new balls, and everything is in your favor. And yet you’re sitting in the changing room.” Eoin Morgan remarked.
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The day started gloriously for the England side, as their former captain and long-time successor, Joe Root, celebrating his 34th century of the red-ball format, went past Sir Alastair Cook to become the highest centurion of the team. This was also his seventh century at Lord’s, the most in the format.
England needs to pick eight more wickets with two more days yet to go in, defending 430 more runs in the game to seal the series with a 2-0 margin.