Ben Duckett’s typically quickfire fifty guided an England side chasing a series whitewash against Sri Lanka to 76-1 before bad light forced an early lunch break on the first day of the third Test at the Oval on Friday.
Duckett was 51 not out and stand-in captain Ollie Pope, desperate for a return to form, was unbeaten on 14 when the umpires took the teams off the field with 15 overs bowled.
England, who already have an unassailable 2-0 series lead after routing the West Indies 3-0 earlier this season, are bidding for their first home Test campaign clean sweep since 2004, when Michael Vaughan oversaw seven wins from seven.
Sri Lanka captain Dhananjaya de Silva won the toss under gloomy skies and, with a green-tinged pitch also promising to aid his four-man pace attack, unsurprisingly opted to field first.
Duckett was lucky when an inside-edge off Asitha Fernando missed the stumps.
But he clipped left-armer Vishwa Fernando — recalled following Sri Lanka’s 190-run loss in the second Test at Lord’s — off his pads for four.
Left-hander Duckett also hit boundaries off successive deliveries from paceman Milan Rathnayake — advancing down the pitch to drive over extra-cover before going up and over again without leaving the crease.
But it was a different story for makeshift opener Dan Lawrence, a middle-order batsman by trade, but facing the new ball this series in the absence of the injured Zak Crawley.
It took Lawrence 11 balls to get off the mark and he had made just five when he got in a terrible tangle against a short-pitched Lahiru Kumara delivery and top-edged a simple catch to gully.
Pope came in at his Surrey home ground having managed just 30 runs in four innings since first deputising as skipper for the injured Ben Stokes at the start of the series.
But he got off the mark in style, seizing on a loose ball from Rathnayake, whose three overs cost an expensive 25 runs, with a powerful cut for four.
Pope’s hooked six high over deep backward square leg off Kumara left England well-placed at 65-1 off 12 overs at the drinks break.
Soon afterwards the 29-year-old Duckett completed a speedy fifty off just 48 balls, including seven fours.
But even with the floodlights on, the umpires decided it was too dangerous for play to continue.
