Ben Duckett stroked a quickfire half-century to power England to 139/1 on the first day of the third Test against Sri Lanka at The Oval in London on Friday.
Put into bat under gloomy skies, England lost the early wicket of Dan Lawrence but Duckett made light of tricky batting conditions to reach his half-century from 48 balls before play was halted due to bad light.
Duckett smashed his way to 86 from 77 balls, including two sixes in a single over off pacer Lahiru Kumara, while Ollie Pope made 42 as the duo put on a quickfire stand of 94 from as many balls.
Lawrence, on five, skied an ambitious pull off Lahiru Kumara and was caught by Sri Lanka captain Dhananjaya de Silva, the opening trudging off disconsolately after another failure on his return to the side.
Duckett hit seven fours on his way to 51 not out with captain Ollie Pope, under pressure to make runs after a disappointing series with the bat, on 14 including a big six over backward square leg off Kumara.
England, 2-0 up in the series and bidding for their sixth Test victory in a row, made one change to their team with left-arm fast bowler Josh Hull making his debut in place of Matthew Potts.
Sri Lanka recalled batsman Kusal Mendis for Nishan Madushka and seamer Vishwa Fernando was preferred to left-arm spinner Prabath Jayasuriya.
