Dhananjaya and debutant Milan stand tall amongst ruins

England’s Chris Woakes struck twice in one over to dismantle Sri Lanka’s top order

Milan Rathnayake is handed his Test cap by former Sri Lanka captain Kumar Sangakkara before the commencement of play

Sri Lanka captain Dhananjaya de Silva played fluently for his half-century

Milan Rathnayake celebrates his fifty on Test debut

MANCHESTER: Sri Lanka Captain Dhananjaya de Silva stood tall as the rest of his batting fell around him to score a fluent half-century and Milan Rathnayake followed his Captain’s example by scoring a 50 on debut to keep Sri Lanka in the game at the end of an absorbing first day of cricket in the first Test against England at Old Trafford on Wednesday.

Winning the toss and batting first Sri Lanka ended on 236 all out after being 6-3 at one stage. England replied with 22 without loss before bad light ended play with 10 overs remaining for the day.

The first session was all England’s as their fast bowlers made early inroads into the Sri Lankan batting reducing them to 80-5 at lunch. De Silva led a batting revival in the afternoon session when Sri Lanka added 93 for the loss of a further three wickets. De Silva showed his team the way to play on this surface, taking the attack to England whenever he got the opportunity. He looked set for a hundred when he fell in the penultimate over before tea glancing spinner Shoaib Bashir into the waiting hands of Dan Lawrence at leg slip. De Silva struck eight fours in his 84-ball knock of 74 and looked so much in comfort playing the England bowlers compared to the rest of his team mates.

With Rathnayake offering stern resistance from the other end, De Silva added 63 for the eighth wicket. Following the dismissal of his captain Rathnayake took over the role of senior batsman and went onto complete a splendid half-century off 96 balls (5 fours, 1 six) getting to the landmark with a six off Bashir, that also brought up Sri Lanka’s 200, which at one time never looked possible. It was a gutsy knock by the left-hander taking a few blows to the fingers from the quick bowlers, but carrying on regardless, and putting some of the top order batsmen to shame.

Picked as the third seamer, Rathnayake was perhaps inspired by the words of encouragement and advice given by former Sri Lanka Captain Kumar Sangakkara (a left-hander himself) before he was handed his Test cap at the start of the day. Rathnayake put on a plucky batting display to score a fighting 72 off 135 balls (6 fours, 2 sixes) adding 50 valuable runs for the ninth wicket with Vishwa Fernando whose contribution was just seven.

When Sri Lanka and England tossed, it was bright sunshine and De Silva had no hesitation to bat first. But when Sri Lanka came out to bat the conditions had changed and under a cloud cover it was a totally different ball game with lots of movement, pace and bounce which the Lankan top order failed to cope with.

The first five overs Sri Lanka survived but after that Dimuth Karunaratne fell to the first bouncer of the match edging a catch to the wicket-keeper and off Gus Atkinson and four balls later his partner Nishan Madushka followed chasing a wide ball from Chris Woakes. If that wasn’t dreadful enough Angelo Mathews shouldered arms to a ball that nipped back low from Woakes and was adjudged lbw to make Sri Lanka 6-3 by the end of the 7th over.

Kusal Mendis and Dinesh Chandimal showed some intent to push the ball into the gaps and added 34 but the arrival of Mark Wood accounted for Mendis’ wicket – a brute of a delivery at 93 mph that deflected off the bottom thumb and lobbed to Harry Brook at first slip. Chandimal was done in by a ball that kept low and hit him ankle high off Bashir that surprised him. Both Mathews and Chandimal were undone by the low bounce which is seldom seen on a day 

one pitch.

The conditions were initially trying and testing with tough batting conditions in the first session, but it improved during the day when the ball got softer and batting was easy. Players of both teams wore black armbands in tribute to former England cricketer Graham Thorpe who passed away five days ago at the age of 55.

SCOREBOARD

SRI LANKA 1st INNINGS

N. Madushka c Root b Woakes 4

D. Karunaratne c Smith b Atkinson 2

Kusal Mendis c Brook b Wood 24

A. Mathews lbw b Woakes 0

D Chandimal lbw b Bashir 17

D. de Silva c Lawrence b Bashir 74

Kamindu Mendis c Smith b Woakes 12

P. Jayasuriya c Smith b Atkinson 10

M. Rathnayake c Woakes b Bashir 72

V. Fernando run out 13

A. Fernando not out 0

Extras (b-4, nb-1, w-3) 8

Total (all out, 74 overs) 236

Fall of wickets: 1-6 (Karunaratne), 2-6 (Madushka), 3-6 (Mathews), 4-40 (Kusal Mendis), 5-72 (Chandimal), 6-92 (Kamindu Mendis), 7-113 (Jayasuriya), 8-176 (De Silva), 9-226 (Rathnayake), 10-236 (V Fernando).

Bowling: Woakes 11-3-32-3, Atkinson 16-3-48-2 (1nb, 3w), Potts 9-0-48-0, Wood 8-0-31-1, Bashir 23-4-55-3, Root 7-2-18-0.

ENGLAND 1st INNINGS

D. Lawrence not out 9

B. Duckett not out 13

Extras 0

Total (no loss at close, 4 overs) 22

To bat: O.  Pope, J. Root, H. Brook, J. Smith, C. Woakes, G. Atkinson, M. Potts, M. Wood, S. Bashir

Bowling: De Silva 2-0-14-0, Jayasuriya 2-0-8-0.