WATCH: Chris Woakes turns to off-spin amidst bad light in London | Sri Lanka tour of England, 2024

On September 7 (Saturday), one of the weirdest things happened at The Oval when English seam bowling all-rounder Chris Woakes turned an off-spinner. In an unprecedented series of events, the Birmingham all-rounder was forced to bowl four balls of off-spin with day light fading in London. 

The incident occurred in the seventh over of the Sri Lankan innings, just after Dimuth Karunaratne was sold down the river by his opening partner, Pathum Nissanka. With the light not good enough for the batters, the umpires instructed the all-rounder that he could only resort to spin for the remainder of the over they would stop play. 

Woakes bowled the remainder of the over with two slips and a leg slip, much to the astonishment of England’s spin-bowling coach, Jeetan Patel, who was a quality off-spinner during his playing days for New Zealand. 

The 35-year-old erred in his line and length on the very first delivery, bowling it short, making it too easy for Kusal Mendis to find the gap. It didn’t get any better, with Woakes delivering one wide, almost close to the marker in the off side. Nissanka punished the third delivery of Woakes, the off-spinner, to fine leg for a four. 

Off the fourth delivery, however, Woakes finally found his length, taking the ball away from the right-handed Nissanka to round the over. Funnily enough, the light improved dramatically for Gus Atkinson to bowl normally, which left England’s Test skipper Ben Stokes dumfounded at The Oval balcony.

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