By Dhammika Ratnaweera reporting from Galle
Ben Foakes made a fighting knock of 87 in 189 balls as number 6 batsman to rebuild the England first innings to finish the opening day on 321 for eight wickets in the first test at Galle International Cricket Stadium on Tuesday.
After winning the toss, English skipper Joe Root decided to bat first but soon were in trouble in the third over as Suranga Lakmal removed opener Joy Burns and Moeen Ali to send England struggling at 10. Opener Keaton Jennings displayed some good stroke play against the Sri Lankan spin attack but was subsequently bowled out by Dilruwan Perera and England were reeling at 5 for 103 runs in the 24th over.
In his farewell test, 40-year-old Rangana Herath removed English skipper clean bowled for 35 runs thus completing 100 wickets for him at Galle cricket ground.
However Herath had to satisfy with only one wicket but off-spinner Dilruwan Perera was the most successful among the bowlers taking four wickets for 70 while Akila Dhananjaya one wicket and Suranga Lakmal two wickets were the others share English wickets.
Debutant Ben Foakes joined Jos Buttler to restore the English innings and the debutant was rightly aided by the English lower order batsmen to finish the day at 321 for eight in 91 overs in a gloomy first day.
| R | B | SR | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rory Burns c Niroshan Dickwella b Suranga Lakmal | 9 | 12 | 75.00 |
| Keaton Jennings b Dilruwan Perera | 46 | 53 | 86.79 |
| Moeen Ali b Suranga Lakmal | 0 | 1 | 0.00 |
| Joe Root CPT b Rangana Herath | 35 | 46 | 76.08 |
| Ben Stokes b Dilruwan Perera | 7 | 19 | 36.84 |
| Jos Buttler c Niroshan Dickwella b Dilruwan Perera | 38 | 72 | 52.77 |
| Ben Foakes WKT NOT OUT | 87 | 184 | 47.28 |
| Sam Curran c Dinesh Chandimal b Akila Dananjaya | 48 | 104 | 46.15 |
| Adil Rashid c Dhananjaya de Silva b Dilruwan Perera | 35 | 38 | 92.10 |
| Jack Leach NOT OUT | 14 | 17 | 82.35 |
| James Anderson | – | – | – |
| Extras (b 1, lb 1) | 2 | ||
| Total (8 wickets, 91 overs) | 321 |
| Fall of wickets |
|---|
| 1-10 (R Burns, 2.3 ov), 2-10 (M Ali, 2.4 ov), 3-72 (J Root, 16.1 ov), 4-98 (K Jennings, 21.1 ov), 5-103 (B Stokes, 23.3 ov), 6-164 (J Buttler, 43.6 ov), 7-252 (S Curran, 77.2 ov), 8-306 (A Rashid, 87.4 ov) |
| O | R | W | Econ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Suranga Lakmal | 15 | 57 | 2 | 3.80 |
| Dilruwan Perera | 28 | 70 | 4 | 2.50 |
| Akila Dananjaya | 20 | 96 | 1 | 4.80 |
| Rangana Herath | 25 | 78 | 1 | 3.12 |
| Dhananjaya de Silva | 3 | 18 | 0 | 6.00 |
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