Sri Lanka makes promising start to 2nd Test as England reduced to 97-3 by lunch at Lord''s

London, Aug 29 (AP) Sri Lanka made a promising start to the second Test against England at Lord's by skittling out the home team's top order before lunch after winning the toss on a glorious day at the home of cricket on Thursday.
     England reached the end of the first session on 97 for three, with Joe Root (29 not out) and Harry Brook (9 not out) attempting to steady the innings after seeing two teammates throw away their wickets.
     While probing bowling by recalled pacer Lahiru Kumara accounted for Dan Lawrence nicking behind for 9, stand-in captain Ollie Pope and Ben Duckett will feel an element of regret after choosing the wrong shot when getting out.
     Pope (1) got cramped up after opting to pull Asitha Fernando and misjudged his shot, which looped up into the hands of Dhananjaya de Silva running to square leg.
     That made it 42 for two, and it was 82 for three when Duckett (40) top-edged a reverse sweep off the fourth ball of spinner Prabath Jayasuriya's first over and was caught near the boundary by Kumara.
     Sri Lanka's bowling attack offered more penetration than in the five-wicket loss to England in the opening Test in Manchester last week.
     That was plenty down to Kumara (1-28), who took the place of Vishwa Fernando and was causing England's batters problems with his pace and line.
     Pope, filling in as captain again for the injured Ben Stokes, said he would have batted first if he won the toss, which was made under a blue sky in northwest London.
     Sri Lanka also brought in batter Pathum Nissanka for Kusal Mendis and Vishwa Fernando.
     England's only change saw Olly Stone come in for fellow fast bowler Mark Wood, who was missing with a thigh injury.
     The third and final match of the series is also in London — at the Oval — next week. (AP) AYG

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)