Sri Lanka dig deep through De Silva, and Rathnayake to take control of England after the top-order collapse
The Sri Lankan captain and debutant recovered from an early elimination, but England were near unbeaten
England 22 for 0 (Duckett 13*, Lawrence 9*) 214 runs behind Sri Lanka 236 (De Silva 74, Rathnayake 72, Woakes 3-32).
Dhananjaya de Silva vindicated his decision to bat first with a gutsy 74 off 84 balls, while Milan Rathnayake took his captain’s lead with a stunning knock of 72 off 135 balls, the Test 9 is the highest by a debutant in test history. Unfortunately for Sri Lanka, however, even those extraordinary efforts could not atone for the collapse of a dreadful top-order that handed England control of the first Test through the stumps on the first day at Emirates Old Trafford.
By the time Vishwa Fernando was the last man out, run out for 13 off 61 balls in an inning that echoed his famous tail-and-defense partnership with Kosal Perera at Durham in 2019, Sri Lanka were 236 in a gloomy half. The runs were piled up. The light that led England to rely exclusively on spin bowling for their final hour of bowling – an early challenge to Ollie Pope’s strategy on his first day as Ben Stokes’ captaincy stand-in.
Before kick-off, both sides stood on the field to pay their respects to the late Graham Thorpe, who died on August 4 aged 55. 100 Test career, and played a key role as batting mentor to many of the current team including Pope, Root and Stokes.
