Hello and welcome to the fourth day's play at Lord's. It's a cold and wet Sunday in the middle of the English summer. The play is unlikely to start on time today. But that gives us enough time for retrospection. Sri Lanka will certainly resort to that. Unlike the games in Leeds and Durham, they've had their moments at Lord's but could well be looking back at a Test match that could have been. They had a forgettable first session yesterday, throwing away a good start. But such is the fickle nature of the game that they may not still be totally out of this. They have England four down with the lead touch 240 and if then can use the weather-assisted conditions, they could still bowl themselves back into glimmer of contention. But if England even get one big partnership hereon, they'll have batted themselves to safety.
England vs Sri Lanka, 3rd Test - Live Cricket Score, Commentary
This should be fun. Weather permitting of course.
Hales was eyeing his maiden Test ton and he couldn't have picked a better venue than Lord's. He has been dismissed in the 80s twice and this time falls for 94. His luck runs out and Sri Lanka heave a sigh of relief. This was the inducker from Mathews, came back into Hales from outside off, he was looking to work it towards the on-side, missed and was struck in front of middle and leg. Hawk Eye suggested that the ball would have been clipping leg-stump. That's enough for the onfield decision to stand.
England 202 for 6 and lead by 330. It's raining as well now with five minutes to go for tea.
That will be tea on a gloomy London afternoon and it was a session that went firmly into England's kitty. Hales will have to wait for another innings before he gets another crack at brushing off those dreaded few runs to get to the three figure mark that has eluded him so far. After losing more than two hours to rain, the traditional English openers, Cook and Hales got together for the seventh wicket and continued to pile on the overnight lead, stitching together a 82-run partnership at a pretty good rate. This would be yet another session in this series where the statistics do not indicate how well the Lankan bowlers have bowled. With a bit of help from the umpire Rod Tucker, who erroneously signaled a ' no ball' when Pradeep had Hales bowled on 58, or from the "umpire's calls" on DRS, the Lankans could have been in a much better position.
With a lead of 334 runs already and dark clouds looming around, it wouldn't be long before captain Cook decides to put the visitors back to face the music. Join us in around 20 minutes for the final session of play.
Rain is back and the start of the last session has been delayed.
The covers are off. For how long did they stay there? Not sure. We will start at 17:20 local time.
Just three balls into the session, the rain is back. Players are off and the covers are coming back on.
And we are back after a short delay.
This is actually frustrating. The rain is back and the players are off again. This also brings me to an important question - How long do England aim to bat? They can use these conditions to push Sri Lanka on the backfoot.
And we are back. Mooen Ali to face Mathews. Cook with him and, more importantly, the sun is out as well.
England declaring is more surprising than Cook's 11th Test six. So here it is, Sri Lanka will need 362 to make the scoreline read 2-1. Task for England seems far easier, they have got 12 overs today (provided it does not rain) and then three sessions tomorrow to send Sri Lanka packing and register a whitewash which has been only thing missing from their otherwise cleansheet. Join us in a few moments.
England bowled well after declaring but credit goes to the Lankan batsmen who saw through the 12 overs of play today. There were moments when the ball beat the outside edge but that was it. Other than that, there was nothing faulty about the Lankan approach. Going into the last day of the Test match, all three results are possible. But it is tough to imagine Sri Lanka going for a win. That makes the task a little tougher for England. I still think, England took a bit longer than required to declare the innings. Thre weather forecast for tomorrow is better than what it was today. Whether England missed a trick by declaring late or not? We will know the answer tomorrow. Until then, it's bye from all of us here. See you tomorrow. Take care!