If a sterling show at Lord’s provides special recall value, fine performances at the Oval are also well remembered by connoisseurs of cricket. 
Pathum Nissanka, who fashioned Sri Lanka’s recent eight-wicket win at the south London venue with his 64 and 127 not out in the Test, will be long remembered for a brilliant show which coincides with the 40th anniversary of Sri Lanka’s first Test visit to England in 1984. Opener Sidath Wettimuny lit up Lord’s with 190, followed by centuries from Duleep Mendis and Amal Silva. Mendis fell six short of scoring a hundred in both innings in the drawn Test.

Back to Monday’s result. England may have claimed 2-1 series honours, but the visitors were the happier team at the end of the Oval Test. And while we doff our hats to the boy from Galle, a Test debut  centurion in 2021, England’s capitulation for 156 in the second innings provided Bazball slammers a sharper tool.