Sri Lanka captain Dhananjaya de Silva and debutant Milan Rathnayake revived the side after the top order collapsed on day 01 of the first test of Sri Lanka’s tour of England 2024.
Winning the toss Sri Lanka opted to bat where they lost 5 wickets for 80 runs before the lunch break. The visitors fought back from being 6-3 after seven overs which they found hard to bat due to the hard pitch. They further lost two wickets before Dhananjaya de Silva and Milan Rathnayake joined forces to lead the side to cross the 200 runs mark.
De Silva scored 74 runs on 84 deliveries and his 15th half-century before being dismissed by Shoaib Bashir. Meanwhile, the debutant Milan Rathnayake composed a knock of 72 runs from 135 deliveries, the highest by a debutant at No.9 in Tests.
Debutant Milan Rathnayake’s half-century helped Sri Lanka to a decent total, but England openers made a solid start before bad light stopped play in Manchester 👏#WTC25 | #ENGvSL 📝: https://t.co/UuaK0Zyr8t pic.twitter.com/W9Ctwxi7Dc
— ICC (@ICC) August 21, 2024
Despite their brilliant efforts, Sri Lanka couldn’t post a high total due to the top-order collapse which handed England an advantage at Old Trafford. Sri Lanka has been bowled out for 236 with England’s exclusively on spin bowling for the final hour of their bowling stint.
Even though a total was seemingly low for par and Pope anticipated a dry surface at Old Trafford, Sri Lanka’s innings in the second half have helped the visitors a lot. Chris Woakes and Shoaib Bashir picked three wickets each while Gus Atkinson picked two wickets helping the side in the match.
England’s Ben Duckett and Daniel Lawrence opened the innings for the side scoring 22 runs with no loss of wickets by the end of Day 01.
Check: ENG vs SL 2024 Live Streaming – Sri Lanka Tour of England
