[ad_1]
Dhananjaya de Silva and debutant fast bowler Milan Rathnayake both hit fifty runs to help Sri Lanka recover from a dramatic collapse on the first day of the first Test against England at Old Trafford on Wednesday.
Sri Lanka were in trouble at 6-3 after captain De Silva won the toss, losing the first three wickets in 10 balls without scoring a single point.
However, they chased down a total of 236, with de Silva leading with 74 and Ratnayake, who scored only his third first-class fifty, close behind with 72.
The duo halted England’s progress when their partnership for the eighth wicket was 63 runs, while no other Sri Lankan batsman scored more than Kusal Mendis’ 24 runs.
“The captain wanted me to stay on the field and support him,” No. 9 Ratnayake told reporters through a translator after the match. “That’s what I did, and when he was out, I played my part.”
Chris Woakes took the bat twice in his 11th over and finished with figures of 3-32.
When de Silva sent a quicker ball from spin bowler Shoaib Bashir straight to Dan Lawrence at leg-slip, the 20-year-old’s stellar performance ended, having picked up figures of 3-55 in 23 overs.
– A ‘beautiful day’ in England –
Ben Duckett and Lawrence, coming on for the injured Zak Crawley, put England 22-0 ahead, but play ended at 5:52pm (16:52 GMT) due to lack of light that day.
“I think it’s a great day,” Woakes, who has become England’s attacking leader following the retirement of James Anderson, told Sky Sports.
“When you bowl on the first day at a Test venue like this and then bat at the end of the day, I think you’re really happy.
“It would have been nice if we could have eliminated them earlier, but with the bad light we couldn’t get any fast guys out to clean up the back end.”
Sri Lanka’s initial collapse ensured a dream start for England’s stand-in captain Ollie Pope, who was leading his country for the first time since Ben Stokes was sidelined with a hamstring tear.
The tourists, coming to England for their first Test match in eight years, played just one warm-up match – a loss to second-tier England Lions – and quickly discovered that some of their batsmen could have used a bit more time in the middle order.
Shocking decline
Sri Lanka’s collapse began in the sixth over when Dimuth Karunaratne hit a hook ball high off fast bowler Gus Atkinson to wicketkeeper Jamie Smith.
Woakes then took two runs in the next over when another opener, Nishan Madushka, hit a loose off-spinner and smacked it towards first baseman Joe Root, causing him to lose four runs.
Five balls later, Angelo Mathews caught a return ball from Woakes that flew out of the pitch and missed the target, and was ruled out.
In contrast, Mendis could only catch a brilliant 93 mph (150 km/h) ball from fast pitcher Mark Wood, who leaped less than an inch from the ball and landed at the second baseman.
However, De Silva outclassed Atkinson by four runs, completing an impressive quick fifty in just 56 balls.
Smith got a breather when he missed a tough knock from Bashir on 65 but was out soon after as Sri Lanka lost at 176 for 8.
Still, the 28-year-old Ratnayake was not deterred by the loss of his captain and scored a beautiful fifty off 96 balls after the left-arm batsman hit Bashir for a straight six, which took Sri Lanka’s score past the 200-run mark.
However, Bashir got his revenge when Ratnayake played him to Woakes at mid-on.
Before the match began, the stadium gave a one-minute ovation in tribute to former England batsman and assistant coach Graham Thorpe, with both teams and match officials wearing black armbands in his memory.
Thorpe died after being hit by a train earlier this month at the age of 55. His wife Amanda confirmed that Thorpe committed suicide after suffering from depression for many years.
[ad_2]
Source link
