England trailed Sri Lanka by 214 runs on day one of the first Test after bad light stopped play on Wednesday at Old Trafford where the tourists’ decision to bat first backfired when they were all out for 236.
Sri Lanka captain Dhananjaya de Silva won the toss and opted to bat under cloudy skies but his side were three down for six runs after seven overs before he led their recovery efforts with a confident knock of 74 in the middle order.
England were 22 for no loss in four overs with Ben Duckett and Dan Lawrence at the crease. Sri Lanka, who were unable to get their fast bowlers to use the new ball in fading light, opted to walk off with a few minutes left until stumps.
“I think it’s a good day. When you bowl on day one on a test surface like that, to be batting at the end of the day I think you’re really happy,” England’s Chris Woakes, who took 3-32, told Sky Sports.
With a hard pitch offering assistance for England’s seam attack in the first innings, Sri Lanka’s openers were stifled early on as the bowlers dominated the opening session to reduce the visitors to 80-5 at lunch.
Despite the pressure, De Silva walked in and provided resistance, scoring at nearly a run a ball at one point.
England, captained by Ollie Pope with Ben Stokes ruled out with a hamstring injury, were left frustrated when De Silva stitched together a valuable 63-run partnership with Test debutant Milan Rathnayake, who came in at number nine.
But De Silva fell just before tea when he was caught at leg slip off right-arm spinner Shoaib Bashir (3-55) as the Old Trafford crowd applauded the opposing skipper.
Bad light in the final session forced England to bowl only their spinners with Joe Root also coming into the attack under the floodlights.
Rathnayake, however, continued to annoy England’s bowlers and notched up a well-made 72 off 135 balls before Bashir struck again to have him caught at mid-on.
Sri Lanka’s innings came to a close when Vishwa Fernando was run out by Pope after he had made his way halfway down the pitch before being sent back by Asitha Fernando.
“It would have been nice to bowl them out earlier than what they got, but with the bad light we couldn’t bring our quick guys on to mop up the tail,” Woakes added.
“We wanted to stay out there and feel we could bowl them out. Thankfully, we did in the end. It could have been for 30 less than they got but still really happy.”
Earlier in the first session, Dimuth Karunaratne was out as he swished at a rising delivery from Gus Atkinson and nicked a top edge to wicketkeeper Jamie Smith.
Woakes struck twice in the next over, tempting Nishan Madushka into an attempted drive which he nicked to Root at first slip before removing Angelo Mathews for a five-ball duck as the experienced Sri Lankan was trapped leg-before.
Kusal Mendis was undone by a ferocious 93mph rising ball from Mark Wood that rapped him on the thumb before flying through to Harry Brook at slip while Dinesh Chandmial was out lbw to Bashir.
Before play started there was a tribute to former England batsman and coach Graham Thorpe who died, aged 55, this month.