JOLLIE GOOD START

Stand-in skipper has a great first day on the job

- GIDEON BROOKS

WITH half an hour of his international captaincy career gone Ollie Pope will probably have been thinking of posting his application for the position full time.

Lose the toss and get the ball on what looked a decent track? No trouble. At 11.31am Sri Lanka had batted seven overs, were three down and four runs shy of reaching double figures at Old Trafford.

Yet at the end of a day brought to an end at 5.53pm by bad light, the stand-in skipper had also been given a lesson in the frustrations of a job which has vexed some of the greats before him.

England undoubtedly remain in a very strong position in this opening Test of three, but as Pope settled to his evening meal last night he might justifiably wonder about how much better it might have been after the tourists climbed off the canvas from 92-6 to 236 all out.