Former England captains Nasser Hussain, Mike Atherton and Michael Vaughan were in the chaos after Sri Lanka embarked on a disgraceful fashion on the first day of the First Test in Galle.
The guests were taken out for 135 as spinner Dom Bess captured five wikis despite admitting he had not bowled well.
Almost all bats fell to a textured delivery, including being caught off a long beer and while trying to sweep back.
“I think abysmal is so kind – it was completely rusty,” Hussain said. “You think of some of Sri Lanka’s greats – what do they think looks like batting performance like that? It was farcical.
“I would like to know how many of these Sri Lankan bats walked into the dressing room and thought‘ I got out to proper delivery ’, there were none. It was a joke before last.
“People were diving in, people were turning back – that was the 46 most farcical overs cricket test I have ever seen in my life and if Sri Lanka lose this game it is because of such disgusting as they have been. ”
Atherton said it was “some of the worst test game bats I’ve ever seen”.
“It’s good for Dom Bess to have five but he’ll never get one cheaper than that because he hasn’t really bowled so well,” said Atherton.
Vaughan was very disappointed, tweeting: “That 46.1 overs is the worst possible advertisement for Test Cricket… it seems to have been the pinnacle… that was Sri Lanka’s clean waste. ”
Bess, who returned figures of 5/30, along with conductor Stuart Broad, who caught three wikis, as Sri Lanka were all out in two sessions while the two – test series start again in Galle after the initial voyage overcame the virus in March.
But the pro-spinner admitted he had escaped with a few easy strikes. “I may not have bowled as well as I could, and I may have gotten away with one or two, but that’s cricket,” Bess told reporters after the day ‘s play.
“Flip it on and see how well Broady and Sammy (Sam Curran) did at the top. It was exceptionally good and definitely added an early version. ”
Bess caught wicketkeeper Niroshan Dickwella at a point on hop long after the bat had been shot and the spinner said it was “not my favorite wicket”.
Wicketkeeper Dasun Shanaka was also lucky after a shot grabbed Jonny Bairstow’s boot at the short leg and lobbied for an easy grip on the goddess Jos Buttler.
England lost their openers early but skipper Joe Root, on 66, and Bairstow, on 47, led the visitors to 127 for two at the end of the game. They still follow Sri Lanka with eight runs.
The two put a batting on an unbeaten 110-yard lead after Dom Sibley, for four, and Zak Crawley, for nine, fell to spinning Lasith Embuldeniya’s left arm.
Root, who successfully revised the lbw call in his favor after being handed over by the umpire on the field on 20, reached his 50th fiftieth in 98 Tests. He has 17 centuries.
Bess remained the hero of the day with his second five-wicket draw in his 11th Test as the center saw the lowest score for the first inning, well below Sri Lanka’s 181 against Pakistan in 2000.
Sri Lanka suffered a pre-match jolt when skipper Dimuth Karunaratne was taken off in the first of two tests with a broken toe.
Stand-in captain Dinesh Chandimal scored 28 goals and put up a bit of a 56-run stint with Angelo Mathews, who made 27 when he returned from a leg injury.
Broad hit twice in time to put back four-time opener Lahiru Thirimanne, and Kusal Mendis for nine – his fourth straight duck – to spell early trouble for the guests.
Spin was taken in 11th place and Bess, with his second ball, got Kusal Perera for 20 when the bat stopped a backhand to England captain Joe Root at the first slip.
Sri Lanka had dropped to 25 for three but Mathews and Chandimal stood firm to lunch.
Broad came back in the second session to break the stance as he caught Mathews at a slip and left Chandimal, who survived after being caught by editor Dan Lawrence before lunch on 22, two balls away followed by Jack Leach.
Mathews, with the hamstring injury that kept him out of the 2-0 test series in South Africa, went past 6,000 test runs during a hit before Bess ran out through order medium and low.
“I’ve been with the team for a year and that was the worst batting I’ve seen from the team,” said Sri Lanka batting coach Grant Flower. “It’s just mind I think, I see no other reason to explain that.”
– with AFP