Bad light has plagued the Oval Test thus far, with fewer than half the scheduled overs on day one possible despite minimal rain falling. The farce stepped up a level on the second day, with a mid-over light reading forcing Woakes to switch from seam to spin mid-over.
The run out of Dimuth Karunaratne, caught short by an Olly Stone direct hit, came two balls into Woakes’ fourth over, and the break in play afforded the umpires the chance to measure the brightness on offer, with clouds rolling in. They instructed England captain Ollie Pope that conditions were too poor for seam to be bowled - leaving him in a pickle, given Woakes still had four balls left of his over.
The Laws of Cricket state that “a bowler shall finish an over in progress unless incapacitated or suspended”, meaning that the only options available were to leave the field or for Woakes to temporarily become a spinner. He could be seen hastily rehearsing his off-breaks on the outfield before trundling in.
Pope showed faith in the Wizard’s tweak, crowding the bat with close-in fielders. However, Woakes failed to threaten, with two drag downs and two big outswingers seeing him concede six runs. From the England balcony, spin coach Jeetan Patel - a former Warwickshire teammate of Woakes' - was shown watching on nervously.
To add to the ludicrous nature of the situation, another light reading came at the end of the over, and the umpires judged that conditions had improved, allowing Gus Atkinson to continue bowling at full pace at the other end.
Speaking on BBC Test Match Special, former England spinner Phil Tufnell questioned that it was ever too dark to bowl pace, and called the decision to force Woakes to turn to spin “mind-blowingly poor”.
“This is a bad look for Test cricket,” he said. “It's ridiculous. I've actually got to squint to see, that's how bright it is. I'm completely bewildered by this.”
Earlier, England had been bowled out for 325. They have already sealed a series win, and are chasing a clean-sweep of wins in a Test summer for the first time since 2004.
Watch Chris Woakes bowl off-spin below:
Chris Woakes was forced to bowl off-breaks after a mid-over light reading. Spin wizard.#ENGvSL pic.twitter.com/GncMNojZPJ
— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) September 7, 2024
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