Dhananjaya de Silva and Milan Rathnayake stroked gutsy half-centuries to revive Sri Lanka’s first innings after a top-order collapse in the first Test against England at Old Trafford, Manchester.
The Sri Lanka skipper Dhananjaya de Silva decided to bat first after winning the toss.
Sri Lanka XI: 1 Dimuth Karunaratne, 2 Nishan Madushka, 3 Kusal Mendis, 4 Angelo Mathews, 5 Dinesh Chandimal (wk), 6 Dhananjaya de Silva (capt), 7 Kamindu Mendis, 8 Prabath Jayasuriya, 9 Asitha Fernando, 10 Vishwa Fernando, 11 Milan Rathnayake
England XI: 1 Dan Lawrence, 2 Ben Duckett, 3 Ollie Pope (capt), 4 Joe Root, 5 Harry Brook, 6 Jamie Smith (wk), 7 Chris Woakes, 8 Gus Atkinson, 9 Matthew Potts, 10 Mark Wood, 11 Shoaib Bashir
Dimuth Karunaratne and Nishan Madushka opened the batting for the visitors but their stay at the crease was reduced to just 6 runs as the former was caught by Jamie Smith of the bowling off Gus Atkinson while attempting a pull shot.
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Four balls later, Karunaratne’s partner Madushka chased a wide one from Woakes to offer a simple catch to Joe Root at slips. In the same over, Angelo Mathews left a nip-backer that stayed low to be adjudged lbw.
When Sri Lanka were reeling at 6/3 at the end of 7 overs, Kusal Mendis and Dinesh Chandimal showed some intent to push the ball into the gaps and added 34-run stand for the 4th wicket before Mark Wood dismissed Mendis of a 93mph snorter.
Chandimal and the skipper De Silva added another 30+ partnership before the former was trapped in front by the off-spinner Shoaib Bashir.
Sri Lanka had a pretty good session after the Lunch break as De Silva and the debutant Milan Rathnayake built a fighting partnership for the 8th wicket. The duo put up a brave fight adding 63 runs.
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De Silva went onto score his 15th half-century in Tests but was dismissed by Bashir at the stroke of Tea break.
Rathnayake was very impressive on his Test debut and managed to score a fantastic half-century, becoming the first Sri Lankan to reach the milestone while batting at No. 9 or lower on Test debut. Sri Lanka were eventually bowled out for 236.
In reply, England managed to score 22 runs for no wicket in the 4 overs of spin they faced before bad light stopped play.
https://stats.thepapare.com/cricket/match/england-vs-sri-lanka-sri-lanka-tour-of-england-1st-test
