After a stunning collapse in the top order, Dhananjaya de Silva and Milan Rathnayake, the fast bowler who was making his debut, both hit excellent fifties for Sri Lanka.
On Wednesday, the first day of the first Test match between Sri Lanka and England at Old Trafford, Dhananjaya de Silva and Milan Rathnayake, the debutant fast bowler, both made superb fifties as Sri Lanka bounced back from a spectacular top-order collapse.
After captain De Silva won the toss and lost their first three wickets for no runs in ten balls, Sri Lanka found themselves in a terrible situation at 6-3.
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They managed to rally to 236 all out, with De Silva top-scoring with 74 and Milan Rathnayake, the last man to score, coming in close behind with just his third first-class fifty, with a score of 72.
During an eighth-wicket partnership of 63, the two stopped England’s momentum, with Kusal Mendis scoring the highest of any Sri Lankan batter with 24.
After stumps, number nine Rathnayake told reporters through a translator, “The captain wanted me to stay in there and support him.” “That’s what I did and when he got out, then I played my natural game.” Chris Woakes reached 3-32 in 11 overs by striking twice in an over.
De Silva, who took 3-55 in 23 overs, finished his brilliant innings when he nicked a faster ball from off-spinner Shoaib Bashir straight to Dan Lawrence at leg slip.
After Zak Crawley was ruled out due to injury, Ben Duckett and Lawrence led England to a 22-0 lead before poor visibility caused play to end at 5:52 p.m. (1652 GMT). Following James Anderson’s departure, Woakes is now leading England’s assault.
“I think it’s a good day,” he said to Sky Sports. “I think you’re really happy to be batting at the end of the day when you bowl on day one on a Test surface like that.”
“It would have been nice to bowl them out earlier than what they got, but with the bad light we couldn’t bring our quick guys on to mop up the tail.” With Ben Stokes sidelined due to a strained hamstring, Ollie Pope, the stand-in captain for England, had an incredible start as a result of Sri Lanka’s early collapse.
After losing to the England Lions in their only warm-up match, the tourists entered their first Test match in England in eight years. It quickly became apparent that several of their batsmen needed additional time in the middle.
When wicketkeeper Jamie Smith was hit by a top-edged hook from fast bowler Gus Atkinson in the sixth over, Dimuth Karunaratne’s side collapsed.
The other opener, Nishan Madushka, fell for four as Woakes claimed two wickets in the next over, with Madushka pushing carelessly at an outswinger and edging to Joe Root at first slip.
After he played no shot to a delivery from Woakes that skittered back off the ground, Angelo Mathews was declared leg before wicket five balls later.
In contrast, Mendis was only able to glove a fantastic delivery from express swift Mark Wood at 93 mph (150 km/h) that reared up from a short distance to second slip.
On the other hand, De Silva decisively removed Atkinson for a four and finished with an astonishingly fast fifty off just 56 balls. He was given a reprieve on 65 when Smith failed to stump Bashir, but he was removed shortly after, leaving Sri Lanka 176-8.
Even so, the 28-year-old Milan Rathnayake, unfazed by the loss of his captain, reached a 96-ball fifty with style, as the left-handed batsman hit Bashir for three consecutive sixes, pushing Sri Lanka over the 200-mark.
But in the middle of the match, Milan Rathnayake drove Bashir to Woakes, giving him his comeuppance. Both sides, along with the match officials, wore black armbands in honour of former England batsman and assistant coach Graham Thorpe, who was given a minute’s applause before play began.
