Sri Lanka Stages Spirited Comeback After Day One Collapse vs England
Old Trafford: Sri Lanka showed resilience on the first day of the opening Test against England here. After they had collapsed to three for nothing the night before, a rescue act from Dhananjaya de Silva and debutant Milan Rathnayake helped them recover to 236.
Sri Lanka, put in to bat by De Silva after he won the toss on a calm sunny day, were reduced to 6-3 in six balls. However, determined knocks of 74 from De Silva and a promising third first-class fifty from Rathnayake who scored 72 took the team out of stormy waters. At a time when their innings was falling apart, Kusal Perera [46] and Suranga Lakmal struck up India Today Imagea vital eighth-wicket partnership of 63 to stall England’s advance further — No other batsman made more than the opening pair in terms of runs–Kusal Mendis’ 24.
Chris Woakes, 3-32 (11 overs) At the other end, Woakes triggered a top-order collapse with two wickets in an over to send Nishan Madushka and Angelo Mathews back cheaply. And off-spinner Shoaib Bashir also starred with the ball, claiming 3-55 — including a crucial wicket of De Silva (flicking to leg slip) and he was bowled via an inside edge by Curran.
That was until the close of play when bad light brought an early halt to proceedings, with England openers Ben Duckett and Dan Lawrence seeing out four overs for 22-0. It was a successful initiation too for England skipper Ollie Pope, who led the team in Stokes’ absence.
The abject nature of Sri Lanka’s early woes emphasised the difficult conditions they had to deal with, but De Silva later conceded that Sri Lanka would have possibly played more warm-up games leading up to the series. But Rathnayake’s aggressive batting early in the chase, with a straight six off Bashir getting him to his fifty both had Sri Lanka looking up.
Both sides also took part in a minute’s applause before the match started for former England cricketer and coach Graham ¤Thorpe, who sadly passed away recently. And while it was still England holding sway at stumps, Sri Lanka’s fightback after their horror hour kept the series alive and kicking.