England took a firm grip on the opening morning of their Test series against Sri Lanka at Old Trafford, reducing the visitors to 80 for five despite losing fast bowler James Anderson through injury. Chris Woakes spearheaded the bowling attack with 2 wickets while Gus Atkinson, Mark wood and Shoaib Bashir all chipped in a Wicket apiece. Dananjaya de Silva is unbeaten on 28 to give Sri Lanka some hope but they would need another classic captain’s knock were they are going mount a recovery after lunch.
Sri Lanka, who chose to bat first on winning the toss, were doomed from the moment England made two early breakthroughs in five overs. Dimuth Karunaratne was taken by surprise at the pace and bounce from Gus Atkinson, which resulted with a top-edged pull that went straight to dumini.
His golden-arm Woakes then quickly added both the openers, first when a full-length delivery located Nishan Madushka’s edge with some lateral movement. Woakes, then rapped the pads of veteran Angelo Matthews with an in-swinger to have him lbw for just two and leave Sri Lanka at a precarious 6/3.
Kusal Mendis was in dire need of a partnership and he announced himself with the first boundary struck in 11th over then again for another one. But the change in England’s bowling worked as Wood, on his second delivery of a new spell took Mendis short ball straight to slips after hitting him on the thumb. He was not required to bowl again, however, as set-up man Shoaib Bashir came on and struck just before lunch with a well-placed delivery that had Dinesh Chandimal trapped for leg-before leaving Sri Lanka further in the mire.