West Indies captain Jason Holder led the way with two wickets as the seamers tore through Sri Lanka’s top order to take four wickets for 59 runs in Thursday’s first session of the second test.
Sri Lanka skipper Angelo Matthews won the toss and elected to bat first despite a seam-friendly pitch at P. Sara Oval. He had cause to regret that decision when Kaushal Silva (0) was caught behind by Denesh Ramdin off Jerome Taylor’s bowling on just the fourth ball of the match.
Opener Dimuth Karunaratne and debutant Kusal Mendis were out for 13 runs each with the total on 34 and Mathews was out minutes before lunch for 14.
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Sri Lanka leads the two-match series 1-0.
Sri Lanka won the first test by an innings and six runs but made two changes to the side that played in Galle.
Twenty-year-old Kusal Mendis was named for his international debut in place of out-of-form Lahiru Thirimanne while off-spinner Dilruwan Perera was called up to replace Tharindu Kaushal who has been struggling with his control.
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West Indies left out medium pace bowler Shannon Gabriel to hand a first test cap to left-arm spinner Jomel Warrican.
Jerome Taylor was named after passing a fitness test on a groin strain.
Former West Indies great Garfield Sobers was attending the test played for the Sobers-Tissera trophy named in his honor and that of Michael Tissera a Sri Lanka captain in the pre-test era.
Sri Lanka Angelo Mathews (captain), Kaushal Silva, Dimuth Karunaratne, Dinesh Chandimal,Kusal Mendis, Milinda Siriwardana, Kusal Perera (wicketkeeper), Dhammika Prasad, Dilruwan Perera, Rangana Herath and Nuwan Pradeep.
West Indies Jason Holder (captain), Kraigg Brathwaite, Shai Hope, Darren Bravo, Marlon Samuels, Jemaine Blackwood, Denesh Ramdin (wicketkeeper), Devendra Bishoo, Jerome Taylor, Kemar Roach, Jomel Warrican.