Watch cricket video highlights of Sri Lanka of England 2024. First test between England vs Sri Lanka. Venue of the match will be Manchester.
Asitha Fernando kept up Sri Lanka’s aggressive approach in the opening Test match at Emirates Old Trafford, taking three crucial wickets in a long afternoon session that forced England to battle for the lead following a lengthy rain delay. By teatime, the deficit had dropped to 60 thanks to a valiant half-century from Harry Brook in a fifth-wicket partnership of 51 with Jamie Smith, but Asitha’s interventions, which included the key wicket of Joe Root for 42, had made their first-innings total of 236 look more competitive than it had at the time.
When play eventually started at 1.15pm on a wet morning in Manchester, Asitha was ready to make money since the Old Trafford field was ready for seam bowling after hours of sweating under the covers. Under still substantial cloud cover and with the floodlights full, he presented a concern from the start with his bustling approach and determination to a full length. When umpire Paul Reiffel nailed Dan Lawrence on the pad and declared him leg before wicket (LBW) on the opening ball of his second over, his performance took a dramatic turn.
The ball was revealed to be skimming over the bails, successfully overturning the ruling, yet the bowler flawlessly processed and stored the information. After Ben Duckett was on strike for two balls, Asitha threw the ball two feet fuller. This time, the review was successful, as it was proven that the ball was both pitching on and striking leg stump, turning Duckett inside out on his attempted flick over the line.
The highlight of Asitha’s new-ball performance came in his very next over when he pitched a superb wobble-seam delivery that was half a foot broader than the ball Lawrence hit and straightened off the field to smash into the top of Ollie Pope’s off stump. With their skipper down for six and their side struggling to recover at 40 for 2 in the ninth over, England had some work ahead of them. Naturally, Joe Root is accustomed to narrow top-order scorelines.
Lawrence launched England’s counterattack as he settled in for the long haul, sending two strong whips into the leg side of Asitha as she wandered in length. After a change of ends, Vishwa Fernando took advantage of his weakness in the channel to score just four of his thirty runs via the off side. He did this by exploiting the breeze from the James Anderson End to force a lifter over his bows from his left-arm angle.
Sri Lanka managed to find some noticeable reverse-swing off an often harsh Old Trafford surface despite the wet circumstances, so Root and Brook had to be at the top of their game even if their 58-run partnership moved at a rate of more than five runs per over. As he struggled for that swinging full length, Milan Rathnayake, Sri Lanka’s first-day star, was dismissed for three fours in an over, but Asitha’s return to the attack would result in the day’s most important wicket.
When he was undone expertly, rising into a wider line from Asitha but still going for the inswing that had been the hallmark of his over up to that point, Root had reached 42 from 56 balls in another subtle show of touch and timing. Nevertheless, this ball stayed on course and went straight ahead, leaving England reeling at 125 for 4, thanks to a low edge collected by Dinesh Chandimal.
Even so, Brook continued to apply his trademark forcefulness, manipulating the gaps well and driving with heavy timing when the ball was over-pitched. Given England’s penchant for searching boundaries, Sri Lanka’s field was still leaning towards the defensive. By teatime, Smith was also getting into his groove at 22 not out, with one massive six off Prabath Jayasuriya’s spin demonstrating that he was finding his range in the challenging circumstances.
For the majority of the day, Sri Lanka’s left-arm spinner had been hardworking without posing a danger. Then, without warning, he delivered an impossible delivery: a precisely timed ripper that gripped and bounced on middle and leg to clip the top of off. Brook was stunned and so was Chris Woakes, who fell nearly exactly in the same way to the only other spinning delivery of the day that veered from the straight. Both players blinked in shock.
But in the meanwhile, there was Smith, in the third fifty of his nascent career and perhaps the most hard-earned yet. Earlier in his innings, he had to graft against the swinging ball, but he showed no fear after smashing six consecutive balls off Jayasuriya. His cunning came into play at the midpoint of his innings, particularly when he was able to grind through the 40s after Rathnayake had induced two inside edges in three deliveries with his probing fourth-stump line outside the rookie’s eyeline.
As England, lacking a potent batsman in Ben Stokes, concentrated on batting extended innings rather than racing to an early lead, Woakes was the perfect partner for a defensively oriented makeover. Although Sri Lanka’s bowlers were dominating the game during this time, their methods may not have kept them in the game, as they were able to reduce the other player to a run-rate of less than three an over during their 52-run stand.
And there was never any consideration of Sri Lanka bowling spin in the dark to try to fill the overs, as had been England’s strategy at the same point on day one, even as the light started to fade, minutes after Woakes’ removal. With six wickets under his belt and the promise of a restful night ahead of his quicks, Dhananjaya de Silva marched his team straight to the pavilion to resume their quietly captivating match.
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