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Captain Dhananjaya de Silva and debutant Milan Ratnayake showed great resilience by scoring tough half-centuries for Sri Lanka in the first innings on the opening day of the first Test match between Sri Lanka and England at Old Trafford in Manchester yesterday. Sri Lanka initially struggled with 113 for 7 wickets but eventually managed a total of 236 in 74 innings.
Dhananjaya de Silva scored 74 runs off 84 balls, including eight well-timed ones, vindicating his decision to bat first. 
He also formed a 63-run eighth-wicket partnership with debutant Milan Ratnayake, who played an excellent supporting role. However, the rest of the top order did not perform well, leading to a poor start for the team.
Fast bowler Gus Atkinson made the first breakthrough, conceding just 2 runs to Dimuth Karunaratne, before Chris Woakes followed up with a double wicket haul (Nishan Madushka and Angelo Mathews), resulting in the team losing three wickets in ten balls and no runs, as the England bowlers dominated the first session.
Sri Lanka lost the wickets of Kusal Mendis (24 off 34 balls) and Dinesh Chandimal (17 off 40 balls) as they struggled to steady the innings. Off-spinner Shoaib Bashir took the wicket of Chandimal before lunch, which was a major setback for Sri Lanka given the struggles of its top order.
At lunch, Sri Lanka scored 80 runs with 5 wickets, with Dhananjaya de Silva (28) and Kamindu Mendis (5) at bats.
Before the tea break, Dhananjaya was dismissed by Shoaib Bashir and Dan Lawrence caught the ball at leg slip. The Sri Lankan captain hit his 15th half-century as Sri Lanka scored 178 runs for 8 wickets.
Debuting left-hander Milan Ratnayake played a brilliant innings and scored his maiden fifty. He reached the milestone by hitting a beautiful six off Bashir. He bowled 96 balls, hitting five fours and a six, before batting hard for the ninth wicket with Vishwa Fernando, scoring fifty runs to take Sri Lanka past the 200-run mark. Ratnayake was eventually bowled out off 135 balls, hitting six fours and two sixes for 72 runs, while Bashir took the third wicket in the 71st over, ending Ratnayake’s innings. Vishwa Fernando played a key role for Milan but was unfortunately dismissed for 13 runs off 62 balls, hitting two boundaries.
Three England bowlers Chris Woakes (3-32), Shoaib Bashir (3-55) and Gus Atkinson (2-48) received the bowling honours.
Sri Lanka took the lead in the attack, with off-spinner Dhananjaya de Silva and leg-long bowler Prabath Jayasuriya. Play was suspended with 10 overs to go due to bad light, and England finished with 22 runs to spare, trailing by 214 runs.
Both England and Sri Lankan players paid tribute to the late Graham Thorpe and wore black armbands in memory of the England batsman who died recently at the age of 55.
Posts De Silva and Ratnayake lead Sri Lanka to resilient 236 First appeared in Daily News.
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