by 
Ollie Pope was aiming for a century after making his first fifty as England captain to leave the hosts in control on an interrupted first day of the third Test against Sri Lanka on Friday.
England, chasing a series whitewash, were 194-3 after losing the toss in overcast, bowler-friendly conditions at the Oval, with opener Ben Duckett making 86 before giving away his wicket.
Pope finished on 84 from just 85 balls on his home ground in Surrey, having managed just 30 runs in four previous innings since taking over from the injured Ben Stokes as captain at the start of this series.
A rare bright spot for struggling Sri Lanka was the dismissal of Joe Root for 13 runs shortly before tea.
Root had just made two hundreds in a 190-run victory at Lord’s, where he set a new English record of 34 Test centuries.
England lead the competition 2-0 from three matches, having swept aside the West Indies 3-0 earlier this season.
Victory at the Oval would give England their first home Test match since 2004, when Michael Vaughan oversaw seven consecutive wins.
Sri Lanka captain Dhananjaya de Silva won the toss and, with gloomy skies promising to help his four-man attack, elected to bowl first.
Duckett quickly found his rhythm, the left-hander covering the fours on successive deliveries from Milan Rathnayake.
– Lawrence comes out cheaply –
It was a different story for impromptu opener Dan Lawrence, a middle-of-the-road drummer by trade.
Lawrence was forced to face the new ball in this series in the absence of the injured Zak Crawley.
He had scored just five when he got caught against a short delivery from Lahiru Kumara and flicked a simple catch into gully.
Number three Pope started in style by slicing a loose ball from Rathnayake for four and he also snagged a six off Lahiru Kumara.
Duckett, 29, made a quick fifty off just 48 balls, including seven fours.
Even with the floodlights on, the umpires decided it was too dangerous to continue and stopped play for bad light just 79 minutes into the day, with England 76-1 after 15 overs.
With rain also falling, the match did not resume until 14:10 GMT.
It wasn’t long before Duckett edged Kumara for six on a fine leg as a wayward Sri Lanka again failed to make the most of helpful cloudy conditions and a green-tinged pitch.
Duckett uppercut a Kumara bouncer for a six high over third man before, on 86, surviving the paceman’s lbw review on the umpire’s appeal.
But Duckett fell to the same score when he missed an extravagant catch from Rathnayake towards wicketkeeper Dinesh Chandimal.
It was a reckless end to a partnership of 95 in 16 overs with Pope.
Pope, 26, got lucky with a six off the top edge off Kumara before completing a fifty in 58 balls with five fours and two sixes.
Kumara struck when Root hooked him to fine leg, where Vishwa Fernando held on to the catch despite slipping on the wet turf.
jdg/smg/pb
