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Ben Duckett and Ollie Pope fell cheaply as England suffered early setbacks in their attempt to take the third Test away from Sri Lanka on day three at the Kia Oval.
The pair had been England’s top scorers in the first innings, Duckett making 86 and Pope an aggressive 154, but were dismissed for seven apiece as England took lunch at 35 for two.
That was still good enough for a lead of 97 at the interval, debutant Josh Hull and Olly Stone having finished with three wickets apiece as Sri Lanka subsided for 263 in the morning session.
England are still well positioned to push for the victory that would see them finish the summer with a 100 per cent winning record from six games, but Duckett’s errant drive to mid-on and Pope’s drag on checked their progress.
Earlier, the tourists had lost five for 52 to leave themselves in a difficult spot.
Hull, aged just 20 and one of the rawest selections in recent memory, opened his account on Saturday but also had to deal with the disappointment of dropping a simple catch to reprieve Dhananjaya de Silva.
Handed an immediate chance to put things right with the first spell of the morning at the Kia Oval, the 6ft 7in left-armer bounced out the Sri Lanka captain in his second over and then pinned Vishwa Fernando lbw with a nice inswinger.
A wayward full toss almost brought him a fourth success – for the first time in his brief first-class career – but Olly Stone spilled Lahiru Kumara at fine leg.
Hull was chosen here for his future promise and striking physical attributes rather than any proven pedigree on the county circuit and there were positive signs in a six-over spell that left him with figures of three for 53.
On two occasions he persuaded the ball to rise sharply as it exploded past the batter and cleared wicketkeeper Jamie Smith on its way to the boundary.
His dismissal of De Silva showcased a decent short ball, the batter trying and failing to get on top of the bounce as he shovelled a catch to Shoaib Bashir.
But England will have been just as enthused by his delivery to Vishwa, curving through the air towards leg stump and rapping the front pad.
It fell to the old stager Chris Woakes to get the most stubborn of Sri Lanka’s batters, the in-form Kamindu Mendis feeding a catch to Joe Root at slip for 64, before Stone and Bashir took one apiece to wrap things up.
Stone once again caught the eye with some hostile deliveries before drawing Milan Rathnayake’s outside edge and finished with an impressive three for 35.
