Sri Lanka reached 80 without loss at stumps on the opening day of the only cricket Test in reply Friday to Afghanistan's first-innings score of 198, which included a fighting 91 runs from Rahmat Shah. (More Cricket News)
Dimuth Karuna💟ratne is 42 not out, with Nishan Madushka on 36, as the hosts trail by 11🌸8 runs.
Earlier, left-ar♓m seamer Vishwa Fernando rattled the tourists with four wickets and he was well supported by spinner Prabath Jayasuriya and seamer Asitha Fernando who took three wickets each.
Shah eventually missed out on his second test century after Sri Lanka captain Dhananjaya de Silva won the toss and asked Afghanistan to bat first at the Sinha𓆉lese Sports Club.
Fast bowler Asitha Fernando had early success with Ibrahim Zadran trapped lbw in the second delivery of the match.
Noor Ali 💝Zadran and Shah added 57 runs for the second wicket before Ali Zadran (31) top-edged Vishwa Fernando for a high running catch to the bowler h꧙imself.
Shah and Hashmatullah Shahidi added 52 runs for the thir𒀰d wicket before Shahidi (17) was caught behind by Sadeera Samarawickrama.
Sꩵhah fell after adding 45 runs for the fifth wicket with Ikram Alikhil when hওe was caught behind off Jayasuriya. His 91 runs came off 130 deliveries and included 13 boundaries. It was Shah's fourth half-century in his eighth test.
Vishwa Fernando finished with 4-51.🔯 Asitha Fernando had 3-24 while Jay▨asuriya took 3-67.
It's the first test match to be play🍬ed between the two nations since Afghanistan was admitted as a Test-playing nation in 2018.
De Silva leads the test team for the first time after taking over from long-t🗹ime c▨aptain Karunaratne.
Afghanist♒an handed 📖test caps to Ali Zadran, who has played 51 one-day internationals, Zia ur Rehman, Mohammad Saleem and Naveed Zadran.
Seamer Chamik𝐆a Gunasekara (0-50) made hiꦐs test debut for Sri Lanka.
