treated to some cricket. With the majority of the day washed out due to rain, the sun finally came out to allow some cricketing action. Dimuth Karunaratne won the toss and opted to bat first. Charith Asalanka was handed his maiden Test cap, replacing pacer Dushmantha Chameera. For West Indies, Rahkeem Cornwall and Shannon Gabriel made way for Veerasammy Permaul and Kemar Roach.
Pathum Nissanka showed intent from the start, hitting a beautiful straight drive past Jason Holder in just the second over and followed it up with another boundary off Roach in the next over. The pacers made good use of the new ball and the conditions early on, creating a few half-chances in the process but the openers remained largely untroubled for the most part.
While Karunaratne was cautious in his approach, Nissanka was dismissive of any loose delivery, regularly finding the ropes. He welcomed Permaul into the attack with a six off his second over and soon got to his fifty. The skipper too soon started to take the attack to the spinners. He smashed Roston Chase for two fours in an over but was out caught and bowled off the final ball of the over for 42, breaking the 106-run partnership for the first wicket. Shortly afterwards, the umpires called stumps after bad light forced play to halt, allowing less than 35 overs of action on the first day.
