SaqBen Duckett and Ollie Pope were dismissed cheaply as England suffered early setbacks in their bid to win the third Test away to Sri Lanka on day three at the Kia Oval.
The two men had been England’s top scorers in the first innings, Duckett scoring 86 and Pope an aggressive 154, but they were bowled out for seven each as England went into lunch at 35 for two.
It was still enough for a half-time lead of 97, with debutant Josh Hull and Olly Stone finishing with three wickets each as Sri Lanka retreated to 263 in the morning session.
England are still well placed to challenge for the win that would see them end the summer with a 100% winning record from six games, but Duckett’s errant shot midway through the second half and Pope’s slowdown have hampered their progress.
Earlier, the tourists had lost five of the 52 points, thus finding themselves in a difficult situation.
Hull, aged just 20 and one of the rawest selections in recent memory, opened their account on Saturday but also had to deal with the disappointment of dropping a simple catch to startle Dhananjaya de Silva.
Having been given an immediate chance to put things right in the first over of the morning at the Kia Oval, the 6ft 7in left-hander bounced the Sri Lanka captain in his second over and then pinned Vishwa Fernando lbw with a lovely inswinger.
A wayward full toss almost brought him a fourth success – for the first time in his brief first-class career – but Olly Stone bowled Lahiru Kumara to fine leg.
Hull was picked here for his future promise and striking physical attributes rather than proven pedigree on the county circuit and there were positive signs in a spell of six overs which left him with figures of three for 53.
Twice he persuaded the ball to rise sharply as it exploded past the batsman and past 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 sent a catch to Shoaib Bashir.
But England must have been equally thrilled by his pass to Vishwa, which curved through the air towards leg stump and struck the front pad.
It fell to veteran Chris Woakes to see off Sri Lanka’s most stubborn batter, the in-form Kamindu Mendis, who dropped a catch to Joe Root for 64 before Stone and Bashir took one each to wrap things up.
Stone caught the eye again with a couple of hostile deliveries before drawing Milan Rathnayake’s outside edge and finished with an impressive three for 35.
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