Sri Lanka dragged down hard after stumbling earlier on, on the day 1 of Manchester Test. Courtesy the lower order of Lankan, who wagged in the crucial moment and scored vital runs under their belts.

Opting to bat first, Sri Lanka had a terrible start to their innings. England had a dream start earlier in the day as Gus Atkinson and Chris Woakes removed the Lankan openers in successive overs and both of the pacers had some more wickets in the next few overs as Sri Lanka were crumbling on 6-3 and then 92-6
But the skipper Dhananjaya De Silva stood tall and played a captain's knock to steer the ship.

He found partner in Milan Rathnayake as both of them had a combined 63-run stand which helped Sri Lanka come out of the abyssal.

De Silva scored a fantastic 74 off 84 deliveries, while Milan Rathnayake made 72 off 135 balls and Sri Lanka were all out for 236.

Chris Woakes and Shoaib Bashir were the pick of the bowlers as both of them picked up three wickets each. While, Gus Atkinson had two wickets and speedster Mark Wood contributed with one wicket.

In reply, England started off to a flier and raced their way to 22 inside four overs without any fall of wicket. Bad light enforced early stumps of the day. England are trailing Sri Lanka by 214 runs and the Englishman will be eyeing for over 350 under their belts to thwart Sri Lanka in the first innings.