Matthew Potts, the 25-year-old right-hander of the England National Cricket Team, has put in an impressive performance with the ball and has put the Sri Lanka National Cricket Team batsmen in trouble in the second Test match of the two-match series at the Lord’s Cricket Ground in London.
In the first match of the Test series against Sri Lanka Lions, Matthew Potts did not have a good performance as he went wicketless in both innings. He recorded bowling figures of 0/48 and 3/47 in the Manchester Test match.
However, he made sure to improve his performance in the second Test match and looked fantastic with the ball. Matthew Potts bowled tight lines and lengths to make life difficult for the Sri Lankan batsmen, but his best performance came in the 21st over of the innings.
On the first ball of the over, Matthew Potts bowled a 133 km/h delivery with a messy seam to veteran batsman Angelo Mathews. The ball moved erratically inwards before moving away, and Mathews turned into an “S” and was hit on the outside edge when the ball hit the outside stump.
Angelo Mathews was dismissed by a brilliant delivery from the English bowler, who scored 22 off 36 balls. His innings also consisted of 3 fours.
Matthew Potts then bowled two no-spin balls before dismissing Sri Lanka captain Dhananjaya de Silva for a three-ball delivery.
He bowled a length delivery and the Sri Lankan captain closed the face of the bat to face it, causing the ball to take an edge and move into the hands of Harry Brook at second slip. He bowled two more dot balls in the over to finish with a maiden double wicket.
Watch: W 0 0 W 0 0 – Matthew Potts’ stunning over at Lord’s vs Sri Lanka
I am too
Matthew Potts hits the nail on the head after lunch 👊 image.twitter.com/TsTfmyqjm6
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) August 30, 2024
By tea time, the visitors were down and beaten 129-7 in reply to England’s 427. And speaking during the tea break, former England captain Nasser Hussain said he was very impressed with the way England played. He said:
“I was very impressed by England. [in the afternoon session]”They look like a team that understands the conditions here and understands the purpose. Sri Lanka are the complete opposite, when they were on the field and definitely when they were batting.”
Asked whether England’s national cricket team should enforce tracking if given the opportunity, Nasser Hussain said it would not be a big decision.
Hussain added that England should bat again rather than impose a follow-on because Chris Woakes looked tired at the end of tea and Ollie Stone is an injury-prone player.
“Every reason in cricket is to get back into batting. There are two Test matches in a row and bowlers – Olly Stone has a history of injuries and Chris Woakes looked quite tired at the end of the last one.
“On a dry pitch, Shoaib Bashir can bowl and get batsmen out on the fourth day. Personally, I would go back to batting.”
