A change can be as good as a rest they say, but a trip home usually trumps both and so it proved for Ollie Pope on a disrupted opening day of the Third Test at Kia Oval.
From a batter seemingly frazzled by the novel burden of captaincy across the first two Tests of this series, here Pope was back among familiar comforts and back to his bustling best, making an unbeaten 103 in as many balls to take England to 221 for three at an early stumps.
The interim skipper’s seventh Test hundred, against a seventh different opponent, was, perhaps surprisingly, his first on a ground he has made his own from virtually his first day in Surrey cloth. Indeed, the statistic doing the rounds was that no player with 2,000 first-class runs on any one ground this century has scored them at a loftier average, Pope’s here now above 80 and heading north.
Beyond the numbers, though, this was a much-needed innings from a player under pressure after making just 30 runs in four knocks since being bestowed with temporary leadership of the side by injury to Ben Stokes. A summer that had been in danger of tailing off badly is now bookended by tons, this the 26-year-old’s second of the season after his 121 against West Indies at Trent Bridge.
For the paying punter, too, it offered reason to cheer on a day when cricket’s definition of “bad” in relation to light drifted towards the absurd, the players taken off for almost three hours at what ought to have been the peak of the day.
Either side of that lengthy stoppage, part of which was, admittedly, justified by rain, England’s batters did their bit to put on a late summer show, rattling along at five-an-over as Ben Duckett made 86 from 79 balls.
Sri Lanka, it must be said, were woeful, winning the toss under gloomy skies with an all-seam attack, but then bowling like a team 2-0 down in the series and, mentally, halfway to Heathrow.
To be generous, perhaps conditions did not offer quite as much in practice as the aesthetic presumed. Still, they were certainly in the tourists’ favour and the bowling was poor, deliveries and field settings plucked from different pages of playbooks written in different tongues. What movement the likes of Lahiru Kumara and the Fernandos - Vishwa and Asitha - found tended to arrive too late, as Dinesh Chandimal’s fingers could attest, the ‘keeper struggling to pick up the wobbling ball and wearing a couple of awkward blows.
In fairness, even on his home ground, Dan Lawrence never looked comfortable either, taking 31 minutes and 11 balls to get off the mark, before being caught in grim fashion on the hook. The makeshift opener’s departure for five made it three single-figure scores in succession and confirmed the experiment has not worked.
By then, though, Duckett was motoring. Twice, he hit Milan Rathnayake over the off-side, going on to reach fifty in 48 balls soon after drinks, while Pope began with conviction, pulling into the stand for six.
Neither batter was having trouble seeing the ball, but at 12:18pm the umpires decided the scene was unsafe. Not until 3:10pm did play resume.
"The way they were going about, playing very well, it didn't look like it was dark,” said Rob Key, the managing director of England men’s cricket, on the BBC’s Test Match Special during the break.
Amid a debate over ticket prices sparked by a dismal day four attendance last week at Lord’s, it did not go unnoticed that at that stage, with only 15 overs bowled, the near capacity-crowd here were in line for a full ticket refund. One more delivery would see that halved. Given the bleak forecast, you suspect plenty would have shaken hands and gone to the pub , rather than risk a brief restart and the prospect of the players being whisked off again.
In the end, though, the afternoon helping was rich, if not quite fully satisfying.
Duckett looked, frankly, to be finding it all a bit too easy. He scooped once, miscuing four down to third-man when aiming for fine leg. Two overs later, he went again and nailed it, clearing the fence. The same shot would prove his downfall eventually, but only after he had ramped Kumara for six more.
A century had been there for the taking, and in more perilous circumstances England might have rued what was a charitable demise. Here, the Oval groaned, but quickly rose to applaud the intent, the opener having done more than anyone to make staying through the lull worthwhile.
Joe Root, for a man in freakish form, looked oddly scratchy, almost caught at leg-slip on nought and eventually caught on the boundary having made only 13 from his 48 balls.
Pope, though, scampered on after tea, keen to reach three figures before the light again gave way. With the field up on 99, he laced through point in the nick of time. Just one more ball was possible before the umpires signalled towards the dressing rooms and a chorus of boos lamented the end of the day.
