Sri Lanka Struggles at 80-5 During Lunch Break on Day 1 of Opening Test Match Against England

MANCHESTER, England — Sri Lanka found themselves struggling at 80-5 by lunch on Day 1 of the first test against England, despite winning the toss on Wednesday and opting to bat first on what initially seemed like a favorable pitch.

England's seamers reduced the tourists to 6-3 after seven overs and then 40-4 under some clouds in Manchester. A rebuilding job by Dinesh Chandimal and captain Dhananjaya de Silva was ended just before lunch when a delivery by offspinner Shoaib Bashir barely bounced and trapped Chandimal lbw for 17.

De Silva was unbeaten on 28 and in the middle with Kamindu Mendis .

Chris Woakes had figures of 2-17 after removing Nishan Madushka and Angelo Mathews in the same over — a two-wicket maiden — to have Sri Lanka three batters down. Gus Atkinson took the first wicket when Dimuth Karunaratne edged behind.

Kusal Mendis was the other batter dismissed after attempting to fend off a sharp, rising delivery from Mark Wood and looping it off his right thumb to second slip.

England was coming off a 3-0 series win over West Indies and was without captain Ben Stokes because of a torn hamstring sustained in a domestic game this month. Ollie Pope was filling in as captain and Dan Lawrence was deputizing as opener for Zak Crawley, who broke a finger in the West Indies series.

Pope said he would have chosen to bowl first if he had won the toss.

Sri Lanka gave a debut to fast bowler Milan Rathnayake, chosen ahead of Kasun Rajitha and Lahiru Kumara, at the start of its first test series in England since 2016.

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