Sri Lanka recovers after dramatic early collapse
On Wednesday, the first day of the first Test against England at Old Trafford, Dhananjaya de Silva and debutant fast bowler Milan Rathnayake both scored fifty runs to help Sri Lanka recover from a dramatic collapse of the top order.
After captain de Silva won the toss, Sri Lanka were at 3-6 and losing their first three wickets for no runs in ten balls. However, they came back to 236 all out, De Silva scoring the most runs with 74, followed by Rathnayake,
who made 72 with only his third first-class fifty. During their eighth-wicket partnership of 63, they checked England's progress. No other Sri Lankan batsman made more than 24 runs.
"The captain wanted me to stay there and help him," 9 Rathnayake told reporters through a translator after stumps. "That's what I did, and after he left, I played my natural game,"
Chris Woakes went 3-32 in 11 innings after hitting twice in an over. The 20-year-old Dan Lawrence took 3-55 in 23 overs after De Silva turned a quicker ball from off-spinner Shoaib Bashir straight to him at leg slip.
Ben Duckett and Lawrence, who were brought in to replace the injured Zak Crawley, led England to a score of 0-22 before bad lighting halted play at 5.52 o'clock local time.
"To be batting at the end of the day, I think you're really happy when you bowl on day one on a Test surface like that."
"We couldn't bring our quick guys on to mop up the tail because of the bad light, but it would have been nice to bowl them out earlier than they got."
After Ben Stokes was ruled out with a torn hamstring, stand-in England captain Ollie Pope led his country for the first time, and Sri Lanka's initial collapse ensured a dream start. The tourists had only played one warm-up match, a loss to the second-string England Lions, before their first Test in England in eight years. Soon, it became clear that some of their batsmen could have used more time in the middle. When Dimuth Karunaratne top-edged a hook from fast bowler Gus Atkinson to wicketkeeper Jamie Smith in the sixth over, Sri Lanka's collapse began.
Angelo Mathews was lbw five balls later for ducking a Woakes delivery that bounced back off the field. Mendis, on the other hand, had no choice but to glove a fantastic 93 mph (150 km/h) delivery from express quick Mark Wood that reared up from short of a length to second slip. All he could do was glove it.
De Silva, on the other hand, hit a remarkable fifty in 56 balls after pulling Atkinson for a commanding four. He was given a chance on 65 when Smith missed a tough stumping opportunity off Bashir, but he was run out shortly after to leave Sri Lanka with 8-176.
However, Rathnayake, who was 28 years old and was unfazed by the loss of his captain, went on to score a 96-ball fifty when the left-handed batsman sent Bashir for a pair of sixes that also put Sri Lanka past 200.
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