Courtesy: Sky Sports Cricket
Sri Lanka batter Dinesh Chandimal was left in utter shock and disbelief after getting dismissed for 17 on the first morning of the first Test against England at the Old Trafford in Manchester. The 34-year-old got trapped in front of the stumps off the bowling of Shoaib Bashir after his ball scooted along the ground, putting Sri Lanka in deep trouble at 72/5.
After winning the toss, the captain of Sri Lanka, Dhanajaya de Silva decided to bat first on a good pitch at Old Trafford with some clouds around in Manchester. But, the England fast bowlers got off to a great start, picking up three wickets without a run being scored by the Sri Lankan batters at one stage.
With the swift departure of Dimuth Karunaratne, Nishan Maduskha, and Angleo Mathews back into the pavilion, Kusal Mendis and Dinesh Chandimal had the responsibility to take Sri Lanka out of trouble, putting together a good partnership of 34 runs. It led to a 32-run stand between Dhanajaya de Silva and Dinesh Chandimal, which ended with a ball from Shoaib Bashir barely bounced off the ground, hitting the former Sri Lankan captain flush on his back leg before the umpire gave him his marching orders.
Here is the clip of Dinesh Chandimal left in shock after being dismissed LBW:
Dinesh Chandimal ended up taking the DRS on hope rather than conviction before the technology showed that he was plumb LBW. With that, Sri Lanka sank deeper into trouble as their score wasn’t even past 100 runs after losing five top order wickets in the morning session.
Although, a fifty from Sri Lanka captain Dhanajaya de Silva came at the best possible time for the team, dragging them to 176/8 just before the tea was taken at the close of the second session at Old Trafford in Manchester.
