London, Sep 6 (AP) Ben Duckett played one scoop shot too many and fell short of a century though Ollie Pope was heading to three figures for England against Sri Lanka on a weather-affected first day of the third and final test on Friday.

England was 194-3 when a late tea was taken at the Oval, with Pope — standing in as captain for Ben Stokes again — on 84 not out and in the middle with Harry Brook (0).

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Duckett reached 86 in an entertaining and bold knock when he misjudged a ramp shot and lifted the ball into the hands of wicketkeeper Dinesh Chandimal off Milan Rathnayake. Shortly before, the left-handed opener scooped Lahiru Kumara for a four in one over and a six in the next, while also uppercutting the pacer over the boundary.

If Pope gets a ton after tea it would be the seventh of his test career, all against different opposition. It would be a big moment for the batter, who is not only playing on his home ground but has also faced criticism after knocks of 6, 6, 1 and 17 in this series.

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England has already defeated Sri Lanka at Old Trafford and Lord's to win the series and is looking to complete a clean sweep of home test series in a summer for the first time since 2004, having previously beaten the West Indies 3-0 in July.

Joe Root has been the biggest threat to Sri Lanka after back-to-back centuries at Lord's but he went cheaply for 13, swishing at Kumara and getting caught in the deep off a top edge.

There was a stoppage of around three hours either side of lunch because of bad light and then rain on what started as a gloomy day in south London.

Sri Lanka has failed to take advantage of winning the toss and opting to bowl first under thick cloud cover and floodlights at the Oval. England lost only the wicket of Dan Lawrence (5) before the umpires deemed the light too poor and took the players off barely an hour into the morning session, with only 15 overs bowled.

Lawrence, a makeshift opener while Zak Crawley is out injured, made only 9 and 7 at Lord's in the second test and didn't fare any better a week later across London. It took him 11 balls to get off the mark and then he tried to flick a short-of-length delivery from Lahiru Kumara into the leg side, only to misjudge it and top-edge to Pathum Nissanka coming in from gully.

Duckett made his 10th half-century in 26 tests, bringing the fifty up in 48 balls. He hit nine fours and two sixes in total against Sri Lanka's all-seam attack that looked ideal for the early conditions.

England gave a debut to 20-year-old left-arm seamer Josh Hull, who has been fast-tracked into the squad despite taking only 16 first-class wickets in 10 matches in his career.

England coach Brendon McCullum has acknowledged it is a “hunch” and a “punt” to bring Hull into the team and is thinking ahead to wanting a left-armer in the attack for future series, including the Ashes next year.

Hull was given his first test cap by former England captain Andrew Flintoff and was seen having his photograph taken with his family on the field before play began. (AP) AM

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