[Watch] Badlight forces Chris Woakes to bowl spin during 3rd ENG vs SL test

Chris Woakes bowled four deliveries of off-spin during the seventh over of Sri Lanka’s first innings.

In a hilarious event during the third day of the ongoing third test match between England and Sri Lanka at The Oval, England seamer Chris Woakes turned into an off-spinner mid-over.

Woakes was forced to bowl spin when the umpires told England’s stand-in captain Ollie Pope that the hosts would be allowed to bowl only spin because of bad light at the instance. The seamer had bowled two balls until then but then bowled four balls of off-spin to conclude the over.

England’s captain Pope also gave a proper spinners’ field to Woakes for the last four deliveries of the over, including two slips, a leg slip, and a short leg. Seeing this, Ben Stokes, the injured England captain, was seen putting his hands on his head while sitting in the dressing room. Joe Root also laughed on the field while watching Woakes bowl spin.

Chris Woakes gave away six runs, including a boundary in his four deliveries as a spinner. Fortunately, for England, the light was alright in the next over and pacers were allowed to bowl.

Watch: Woakes turns into an off-spinner due to bad light

STOP WHAT YOU'RE DOING! ⚠️Bad light means Chris Woakes is bowling spin 😆 pic.twitter.com/TPYSnwXiEN

— England Cricket (@englandcricket) September 7, 2024

England made 325 runs in their first innings

Earlier, Pope played a fantastic knock of 154 runs and opener Ben Duckett made 86 runs, helping the hosts reach 325. Sri Lanka’s Mulan Rathnayake bagged three wickets.

In reply, Sri Lanka were struggling at 93-5 at one stage, but skipper Dhananjaya de Silva (64*) and Kamindu Mendis (54*) took their side to 211-5 at the stumps on Day 3. The visitors are trailing by 114 runs.

Both teams’ playing XI:

Sri Lanka: 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: Daniel Lawrence, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope(c), Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jamie Smith(w), Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Olly Stone, Josh Hull, Shoaib Bashir

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