What happened when last time Sri Lanka faced England in a test match at The Oval, London?

Sri Lanka and England played only one test match at the Oval, London before the 2024 test.

Sri Lanka stand on the verge of a memorable and unexpected win against England in the ongoing test at The Oval, London. But it is not unprecedented territory for the Lankans as they have been here, at The Oval, before with a win to their name, albeit a long, long time ago.

Having lost the first two tests of the ongoing series, barely anyone would have expected the visitors to be in a commanding position by stumps on Day 3 of the third test.

England scored 325 runs in their first innings before bowling the opposition out for 263. The hosts took a crucial first innings lead of 62 runs. Until then, the game had gone on an expected pattern. But the England batters then fumbled terribly in their second innings.

Multiple batters got out to rash shots and eventually England were bowled out for 156 in 34 overs in their second innings, setting up a target of 219. Sri Lanka breezed to 94/1 in 15 overs by the end of the third day of the game and are only 125 more runs away from a famous win.

Ahead of this test, Dhananjaya de Silva’s side would have also taken motivation from the result of their only test at The Oval against England, which came 26 years ago.

What happened the last time when Sri Lanka faced England in a test match at The Oval, London?

In their only encounter at The Oval before the 2024 test, Sri Lanka defeated England by 10 wickets in August 1998. Opener Sanath Jayasuriya and spinner Muthiah Muralitharan were the heroes for the visitors in that match as both players put up epic performances.

Sri Lanka captain Arjuna Ranatunga won the toss and elected to bowl first. England posted 445 on the board in their first innings as Muralitharan took seven wickets while bowling almost 60 overs.

In reply, Jayasuriya rode his team with a thunderous double century, scoring 213 off 278 balls, and Aravinda de Silva scored 152. Sri Lanka finished with 591 to take a significant lead of 146 runs.

Muralitharan then single-handedly dismantled England for 181 runs by taking nine wickets while bowling 54.2 overs. The visitors were given a small target of 36 runs, which they chased down in only five overs and with all 10 wickets in hand.

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