Welcome to the highlights and ball-by-ball commentary of the first day of the first Test between England and Sri Lanka at Old Trafford Cricket Stadium in Manchester on Wednesday, August 21. (Streaming | More Cricket News)
Milan Rathnayake scored 72 runs, the highest by a debutant at No. 9 in Test cricket history, and captain Dhananjay de Silva too hit a half-century but a top-order collapse led to Sri Lanka getting bowled out for 236 runs. England were batting at 22 runs for no loss after four overs, when bad light brought a premature end to the day's play.
Earlier, de Silva won the toss and elected to bat first.
Teams:
England (Playing XI): Daniel Lawrence, Ben Duckett, Ollie Pope(c), Joe Root, Harry Brook, Jamie Smith(w), Chris Woakes, Gus Atkinson, Matthew Potts, Mark Wood, Shoaib Bashir.
Sri Lanka (Playing XI): Dimuth Karunaratne, Nishan Madushka, Kusal Mendis, Angelo Mathews, Dinesh Chandimal(w), Dhananjaya de Silva(c), Kamindu Mendis, Prabath Jayasuriya, Asitha Fernando, Vishwa Fernando, Milan Priyanath Rathnayake.
England need to keep collecting Test wins with time not in their favour for the World Test Championship at Lord’s in London next June.
The hosts, however, come into the contest on the back of handing a 3-0 series whitewash to West Indies, but are without their skipper Ben Stokes. Ollie Pope is leading the team in his absence.
Sri Lanka, on the other hand, enter the Test series after a ODI series victory against India, but were defeated by the England Lions in a Tour match at Worcester. The visitors will be hopeful of a good fight in tough English conditions.
