by 
Ben Stokes and the England balcony were reduced to frustrated laughter by a farcical passage of play which saw seamer Chris Woakes forced to bowl four balls of poor spin due to bad light.
On the first day of the final Test of the summer, only 44 overs were bowled as the umpires sent players off the field due to poor light. Conditions were better on the second day, but after lunch, as Sri Lanka responded to England’s 325 overs, the light deteriorated slightly.
After Olly Stone hit a brilliant direct hit from cover to dismiss opener Dimuth Karunaratne, umpires Joel Wilson and Chris Gaffaney met. They decreed that even though it was 2.25pm midday and Woakes was already two balls into his fourth over, England had to bowl the ball or play would be suspended.
After taking a wicket, England opted for the first option, with Woakes tasked with bowling the ball. It wasn’t a pretty sight. His first ball was a leg-side half-tracker that allowed Kusal Mendis to start with an easy single, the second lucky not to be called a wide outside off-stump. The third was even shorter, and pulled by Pathum Nissanka for four, before a slow delivery to the seam conceded a single with the last ball.
A decision that made Stokes’ head spin
Perhaps most bizarrely, the umpires reconvened as soon as Woakes’ over was over and, thanks to a better light meter reading, England were allowed to bowl at pace again. Gus Atkinson, who is considerably quicker than Woakes, continued his spell.
The England team balcony was left bemused by what they saw, with injured captain Stokes reduced to frustrated laughter, hands on his head before disappearing off-camera into the dressing room. Joe Root, who was playing ball, could only laugh.
The remainder of the afternoon session saw safe conditions for the seam to be bowled, but by the time the players returned after tea the light had deteriorated and England played spin at both ends, with Shoaib Bashir, Dan Lawrence and Root in operation.
Eventually, with Dhananjaya de Silva and Kamindu Mendis’ sixth-wicket partnership worth over 100, the umpires removed the players from the field at 5.35pm, with stumps being confirmed shortly after.
At the end of a dismal summer of Test cricket, it was another frustrating day for paying punters.
