De Silva puts Sri Lanka in charge

Scores century to take Islanders from 112-4 to 290-5 on day one of second Test

HARARE: Dhananjaya de Silva scored his second Test century to lift Sri Lanka to 290-5 at the close of play on the opening day of the second Test against Zimbabwe at the Harare Sports Club yesterday.

De Silva (100 not out) will resume on the second morning with Asela Gunaratne (13 not out) as Sri Lanka seek to build a big first innings total and claim the series having won the first Test by 225 runs.

Zimbabwe won the toss and asked the tourists to bat on a pitch that had a noticeable covering of grass.

They reduced Sri Lanka to 112 for four shortly after lunch, but could not build on that good start.

A 143-run fifth wicket stand between De Silva and Upul Tharanga (79) steadied the innings, before the latter was caught at slip by Hamilton Masakadza off the bowling of home captain Graeme Cremer.

The wicket came via a deflection off the gloves of wicketkeeper Peter Moor and was notable for the first ever use of the Decision Review System (DRS) in Zimbabwe after Australian umpire Simon Fry had originally turned down the home side’s appeals.

Masakadza had earlier claimed the first two wickets as Dimuth Karunaratne (26) and Kusal Perera (four) were both caught, before Kaushal Silva (37) was trapped leg before wicket by Chris Mpofu.

Kusal Mendis (26) was the other wicket to fall as he was caught by Moor off Donald Tiripano.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 7^th, 2016.

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