England v Sri Lanka 3rd Test Day One: Sri Lanka Reach 23/1 Amidst Rain
Inclement weather not only delayed the start of the first day’s play of the third Test match between England and Sri Lanka at Rose Bowl but also did not allow much play at the start of the second session of the game. Amidst rains and sporadic sunshine, Sri Lanka reached 23 for the loss of one wicket at lunch before the heavens opened once again.
The play which was supposed to begin at 10.30 am local time with the toss, did not commence for about a hour and a quarter after the scheduled start. England called it right at the spin of the coin and under conditions that would have suited their medium pace bowlers, decided to bowl first.
Sri Lanka made a couple of changes to their playing eleven. One was a forced change, with the injury to Tillakaratne Dilshan, who was replaced by debutant Lahiru Thirimanne. Farveez Maharoof was also left out and Thisara Perera, who had played in the first Test match, joined the eleven.
England made one change too, with the fully fit James Anderson walking into the playing eleven in place of Steven Finn. There was much speculation about Anderson replacing Stuart Broad, who had been in some indifferent form but captain Andrew Strauss seemed to have resisted the temptation to change things around too much.
The early action saw a slow and a watchful start from the Sri Lankan openers, with a loud appeal against Tharanga Paranavitana for a caught-behind being referred to the third umpire through the DRS. However, there was no evidence to overrule the decision and Paranavitana played on.
However, after surviving for 38 balls, the debutant Thirimanne was sucked into edging one from Anderson to the slips and England had stuck in the 13th over of the innings. Only two balls later, it rained heavily enough for the umpires to take an early lunch. As it turned out, it was the last piece of action for the next three hours or so.
