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.
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.