Farce of Chris Woakes having to bowl spin in bad light leaves Ben Stokes with head in hands

Ben Stokes and the England balcony were reduced to frustrated laughter by a farcical passage of play that saw seamer Chris Woakes forced to bowl four balls of ugly off-spin due to bad light.

The first day of the final Test of the summer saw just 44 overs bowled because the umpires took the players from the field due to bad light. The conditions were better on the second day but after lunch, as Sri Lanka responded to England’s 325, the light worsened a touch.

After Olly Stone pulled off a brilliant direct hit run-out from cover to dismiss opener Dimuth Karunaratne, the umpires Joel Wilson and Chris Gaffaney came together. They decreed that despite it being the middle of the day – 2.25pm – and Woakes being two balls into his fourth over, England had to bowl spin or play would be suspended.

Having just taken a wicket, England opted for the former – with Woakes charged with bowling spin. It was not pretty. His first ball was a legside half-tracker that allowed Kusal Mendis to get off the mark with an easy single, with the second lucky not to be called a wide outside off-stump. The third was even shorter, and pulled by Pathum Nissanka for four, before a slow seam-up delivery conceded a single with the final ball.

A decision that had Stokes’ head spinning

Perhaps most bizarre of all was that the umpires came together again as soon as Woakes’s over ended and, with the reading on the light meter better, England were allowed to bowl pace again. Gus Atkinson, who is considerably quicker than Woakes, continued his spell.

The England balcony was left baffled by what they saw, with the injured captain Stokes reduced to frustrated laughter with his hands on his head before disappearing out of shot into the dressing room. Joe Root, fielding at slip, could only laugh.

The remainder of the afternoon session saw conditions safe for seam to be bowled but by the time the players returned after tea, the light had deteriorated and England bowled spin from both ends, with Shoaib Bashir, Dan Lawrence and Root in operation.

Eventually, with Dhananjaya de Silva and Kamindu Mendis’s sixth-wicket partnership worth more than 100, the umpires took the players from the field at 5.35pm, with stumps confirmed soon after.

At the end of a drab summer’s Test cricket, it had been another frustrating day for paying punters.

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