Sri Lankan left-arm spinner Prabhat Jayasuriya brought Sri Lanka back into the game with his sensational bowling on day 2 of the first Test against England. He bowled two stunning deliveries to get past the defense of Harry Brook and Chris Woakes. Both the dismissals came at crucial stages in the game and allowed Sri Lanka to keep themselves in the game.
You can watch both the dismissals in this video:
In the England’s first innings, Sri Lankan pacers restricted them from a decent start as wickets kept falling until their stand in vice-captain Harry Brook and experienced Joe Root added some semblance to their innings.
After Root got out, it was Brook who stood alongside Jamie Smith, the one who took the role of the injured Stokes in the batting order. Both of them contributed largely to England’s innings, as they scored their respective fifties.
Brook fell to a jaffa from the Lankan orthodox spinner as he landed a dipping spin ball on one of the cracks of the Manchester pitch. The ball spun to leave the batter baffled as it took the top of off-stump.
He also struck for Sri Lanka’s final wicket of the day as he got rid of the all-rounder Chris Woakes with a similar delivery that spun from the middle stump to hit the top of off.
Sri Lanka bundled out for 236 in the first innings against England
England are hosting Sri Lanka for a Two-match Test series, with the first match being played at Manchester. Batting first, Sri Lanka put themselves in deep trouble, having lost five wickets for just 72 runs on the board. The lower-middle order, however, added some stability to their innings, as skipper de Silva along with the debutant Rathnayake put on a 150-plus run partnership to take Sri Lanka to 236.
Rathnayake broke a 41-year-long record held by India’s World Cup-winning bowler Balwinder Singh Sandhu. Sandhu, in his Test debut back in 1983 against Pakistan, scored 71 runs, coming in at No. 9. The record was finally broken by Rathnayake’s 72 against England on his Test debut.
England, at the end of the 2nd day, had scored 259/6 with Jamie Smith standing tall with 72 runs to his name.
