Sri Lanka’s troubles continued when they were dismissed for only 135 on day one of the opening Test match against England in Galle on Thursday.
Fresh off a heavy 2-0 series defeat by the Proteas, Micky Arthur’s men found themselves with their backs against the wall yet again.
Sri Lanka captain Dimuth Karunaratne was ruled out with an injury before the start of play as the hosts batted first.
Following a long delay due to problems with the sight board early on, the England bowlers began to tumble the Sri Lanka batsmen.
Stuart Broad and Dom Bess made early inroads before the spinner, aided by Jack Leach, ran through the middle order with quick wickets.
Sri Lanka were all out shortly before tea as Bess claimed figures of 5-30 in only 10.1 overs, while Broad picked up three wickets of his own.
Due to mostly poor batting, only four Sri Lanka batsmen got past 20 with stand-in captain Dinesh Chandimal top-scoring on 28.
In reply, England, however, also started poorly when both openers, Zak Crawley (9) and Dom Sibley (4), departed due to Lasith Embuldeniya.
Jonny Bairstow and Joe Root steadied the ship and began piling on the runs in the final session, guiding England to 127-2 at stumps.
The pair will be looking to kick on with the bat on Friday, with Bairstow unbeaten on 47 and Root on 66.
