ENG vs SL: At the end of Day 2, England stood at 259/6, with a 23-run lead over the visitors Sri Lanka, with their best batter of the inning Jamie Smith still on the field with 72 runs in just 97 balls.
Sri Lanka, after winning the toss, went on to bat first in the first inning of the game and struggled early on as Sri Lankan openers fell early to English pacers Chris Woakes and Gus Atkinson. Even when experienced campaigners like Angelo Mathews and Dinesh Chandimal failed to stand long on the crease, Lankans had to be rescued and then stepped in the skipper.
Sri Lanka is being led by Dhananjaya de Silva, who took over as the red ball captain from Dimuth Karunaratne. Dhananjaya, who has had a stunning year in the longest format, continued his good form at Old Trafford as he came to bat in at No. 6 and started building a partnership with No. 9.
Sri Lanka saw their debutant, Milan Rathnayake, come in to bat at no. 9, and the left-hander announced his arrival to the format in a commanding fashion. He built the foundation of the Lankan innings with an 8th-wicket partnership alongside the skipper.
In the innings he played, he went past 4 decades; that is a 40-year-long record held by India’s tailender, Balwinder Singh Sandhu, as a no. 9. Sandhu in his debut test in 1983 came to bat at no. 9 against arch-rivals Pakistan and went on to score a stunning 71 runs, a record that remained unbroken till 2024, which Rathnayake went past in his debut test for Sri Lanka against the English at Old Trafford.
Even after de Silva got out for 74, the debutant continued his carnage over the opposition as his 72 runs took Sri Lanka to 236, which was better than their sinking state.
ALSO READ: Lord’s set to host the historic first-ever Women’s Test, featuring India and England in 2026
England batters batted for an entire second day, as the openers fell after not scoring a huge lot of runs and were then followed by an early loss of the stand-in skipper Ollie Pope. However, the England middle order thrived again as Root (42), Harry Brook (56) and wk-batsman Jamie Smith, who has taken over Stokes’ role, stood strong with 72 runs.
England will resume their action of Day 3 today, and likely they will resume their baseball form of the game as they will look at winning the Test to better their standings in the WTC table.
