Agencies
England made a strong start to life under Ollie Pope’s temporary captaincy, bowling out Sri Lanka for 236 on the first day of the first Test at Emirates Old Trafford, reports BBC Sport.
Pope’s first act standing in for the injured Ben Stokes was to lose the toss. Pope indicated he wanted to field first anyway and his instincts were proved correct as Sri Lanka immediately slumped to 6-3.
Mark Wood produced a snorter to remove Kusal Mendis, then Shoaib Bashir a scuttler to pin Dinesh Chandimal, a two-paced pitch with some uneven bounce playing a part in Sri Lanka’s lurch to 113-7.
It was captain Dhananjaya de Silva who showed the grit and application to keep the tourists respectable. He added 63 for the eighth wicket with Milan Rathnayake, the seam bowler playing his first Test.
Even after Dhananjaya was caught at leg slip off Bashir for 74, Rathnayake continued to 72, the highest score ever made by a number nine on Test debut.
When Vishwa Fernando was run out to end the Sri Lanka innings, the light was so poor that England were unable to bowl their pacemen.
That meant Sri Lanka had to open the bowling with spin, not necessarily a disadvantage on a surface already turning.
In four overs, Ben Duckett and the recalled Dan Lawrence moved to 22-0. Sri Lanka wanted to call on pace, so the umpires intervened over the light, leaving 12 overs unbowled.
Sri Lanka have not played a Test in the UK since 2016 and only two matches outside of Asia since March 2021. On Tuesday, Dhananjaya said his side wanted more than their solitary warm-up against England Lions and the top order looked vastly under-prepared.
But the skipper showed his team-mates the way with a purposeful innings, never missing an opportunity to attack the England bowlers. His half-century was reached in only 56 deliveries.
Support came from Rathnayake, who was perhaps inspired by receiving his Test cap from Sri Lanka great and fellow left-hander Kumar Sangakkara at the beginning of the day. He squirted the ball through the leg side and showed elegance through the off.
Dhananjaya survived a tough stumping chance on 65 when Smith fumbled off Bashir, yet Bashir got his man when Dhananjaya turned to Dan Lawrence at leg slip.
Rathnayake continued, dominating a ninth-wicket stand of 50 with Fernando. He went past the previous best by a number nine on Test debut, the 71 of India’s Balwinder Sandhu in 1983, when he hit Bashir down the ground, only for an attempt at a repeat to end in the hands of Woakes for Bashir’s third wicket.
Lawrence, recalled to open in place of the injured Zak Crawley, would have been run out for two had Mathews’ throw from mid-wicket hit direct, England’s only alarm in cutting the deficit to 214.
