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Ollie Pope returned to form at his home ground The Oval with a first century as England captain on the opening day of the third Test against Sri Lanka on Friday.
Pope had scored just 30 runs in the previous four innings since taking over from the injured Ben Stokes as captain at the start of this series.
But when low light ended play for the day, Pope ran on 103 runs not out, with England well placed at 221-3.
Sri Lanka, already 2-0 down in the three-match series, failed to make the most of overcast conditions and a green-tinged pitch after captain Dhananjaya de Silva won the toss.
And England should arguably have scored another century on Friday, with opener Ben Duckett, not for the first time, giving away his wicket after making 86.
Duckett praised his captain for ignoring comments from players such as former England captain Michael Vaughan, who questioned whether Pope could cope with the competing demands of leadership and batting at No.3.
“It shouldn’t be, but there’s been a lot of noise around Popey over the last couple of weeks,” Duckett told reporters after the election.
“To block that and score an unbelievable hundred was really good,” he added after Pope’s 12th first-class hundred at his Surrey ground.
A rare bright spot for struggling Sri Lanka was the dismissal of Joe Root for 13 runs shortly before tea.
Root had just made two hundreds in a 190-run victory at Lord’s, where he set a new English record of 34 Test centuries.
England, who swept aside the West Indies 3-0 earlier this season, are seeking their first home Test match since 2004 when Vaughan oversaw seven consecutive wins.
Duckett quickly found his rhythm, the left-hander covering the fours on successive deliveries from Milan Rathnayake.
– ‘Lack’ –
It was a different story for impromptu opener Dan Lawrence, a middle-of-the-road drummer by trade.
Lawrence was forced to face the new ball in this series in the absence of the injured Zak Crawley.
He had scored just five when he got caught against a short delivery from Lahiru Kumara and flicked a simple catch into gully.
Number three Pope, who made a hundred against the West Indies at Trent Bridge in July, started in style by cutting a loose ball from fast bowler Rathnayake for four and then snagging a six off Kumara.
Duckett, 29, meanwhile made a quick fifty from just 48 balls, including seven fours.
Despite the floodlights being on, the umpires decided it was too dangerous to continue and stopped play due to bad light, with England leading 76-1 after 15 overs. Rain then fell and the match did not resume until 14:10 GMT.
It didn’t take long before Duckett edged Kumara for six over fine leg and gave him a high uppercut on the third over, with Sri Lanka’s entire four-man pace attack struggling to maintain a difficult line and length.
But Duckett, who was only in sight of his fourth century in 26 Tests, was run out when he missed an extravagant catch from Rathnayake to wicketkeeper Dinesh Chandimal, with England 140-2.
“When you play like that for a period you can’t really blame yourself but obviously I missed a 100 test there,” Duckett said.
“It might be a learning curve for me but it’s fortunate that I’ve been thinking about playing Test cricket for a long time. It seemed like the right option.”
Pope, 26, was lucky with a six off Kumara’s top edge but the persevering paceman had Root hooked to fine leg, where Vishwa Fernando held on to the catch despite slipping on the wet turf.
Surrey favourite Pope, 84 not out at tea, made his maiden Test century at the Oval when he elegantly drove Asitha Fernando for his 13th four in 102 balls, also including two sixes.
In doing so, Pope, playing his 49th match at this level, became the first player to score his first seven Test centuries against different teams.
jdg/bsp
