ENG vs SL | Twitter in splits as Woakes cracks up in hurting Bashir's face after horrid Wood throw

SportsCafe Desk

BySportsCafe Desk, SportsCafe Editor

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The smaller the scale of a tragedy, the more comedy can be extracted from it. Chris Woakes certainly seems to follow that mantra with heart as he could not help but burst into a fit of uncontrollable laughter on Friday after a Mark Wood throw nealy injured Shoaib Bashir and left the spinner in pain.

England found themselves firmly on top of proceedings at Tea on Day 3 in Manchester as Sri Lanka remained 15 runs behind their first innings lead of 122 with effectively just five wickets in hand. All their four pacers contributed a wicket each while Mark Wood also inflicted a potentially game-ending injury for Dinesh Chandimal with a nasty bumper, leaving the visitors reeling at 107/4. Thus placed comfortably, the hosts allowed themselves to enjoy proceedings in the centre and the approach was never more evident than a comical incident in the 27th over of the innings.

Shoaib Bashir was up against the experienced Angelo Mathews and the veteran nudged the second ball of the over around the corner for a quick single. Wood, stationed at fine leg, sensed the slim opportunity for a run-out and fired in a throw at the non-striker's end. However, Bashir had rightly surmised there was no chance on offer and was walking back to the mark when the Duke's landed in front of his foot, making the spinner turn around, before smashing into the left shin. Bashir immediately let out an agonizing scream and began limping around but there was little sympathy on offer for the youngster. While Woakes walked in from mid-off to try and console Bashir, all he managed was creasing with a burst of laughter right in Bashir's face while squeezing his shoulder from the sheer joy. Wood could not help in but join in with a wry smile that grew into a grin while Ollie Pope and Harry Brook, both of whom had initially covered their mouths in shared agony, were also infected by the unstoppable chuckling of Woakes.

Bashir waved off Woakes even as he saw the funny side of things and had to be subjected to an extended cacophony of laughs given the umpires began checking for a potential no-ball. Nevertheless, play eventually resumed even though a huge smile remained plastered on Woakes' face, much to Twitterati's amusement.

Woakes can't stop laughing

Surprising

Played well

Valuable allrounder

Importatant thing

Cleaned it

Unplayable

Jaffa again

Confidence booster

To balance

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