WATCH: Chris Woakes bowls spin in third Test against Sri Lanka

London: Right-arm pacer Chris Woakes bowled as an off-spinner on the second day of the third Test between England and Sri Lanka at The Oval here on Saturday.

The incident took place in the seventh over of Sri Lanka’s first innings when the on-field umpires asked England captain Ollie Pope to spin two balls in the fourth over with Woakes due to poor light.

Consequently, Woakes had to make a real change and decided to bowl as an off-spinner, leaving Joe Root in the division.

The right-arm pacer started well as a spinner, conceding just one off his first two deliveries.

Chris Woakes, however, failed on his third delivery as a spinner when he pitched the ball extremely short, allowing Koselmendes to pull it towards the fine leg region for a boundary.

He responded with an arm ball, which Mendes respectfully worked for a single towards deep cover.

Soon after the end of the seventh over, it started off lightly and the umpires allowed the fast bowling to resume.

As a result, Chris Woakes resumed bowling as a fast bowler and soon struck a crucial scalp from Koselmendes, who managed to score 13 runs off 14 balls.

Chris Woakes set Mendes up in the channel with a good length delivery and the ball, on pitch, was far enough to take the shoulder of Mendes’ bat and flew to Harry Brook, who latched on to the chance at the slip cordon.

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Sri Lanka were 86/3 in 15 overs in reply to England’s 325 when this story was filed.

Interim skipper Pope led England from the front with a marathon knock of 154, followed by opening batsman Ben Duckett, who made 86 on the opening day.

The rest of the England batsmen struggled against the Sri Lankan bowlers and could only manage a modest partnership.

For Sri Lanka, Milan Rathnayake starred with the ball and picked up three wickets while Vishwa Fernando, Lahiro Kumara and Dhananjaya De Silva took two wickets each.