Harry Brook scored his 13th Test half-century, guiding England to a teatime score of 4-176 on a rain-affected second day of the series opener against Sri Lanka.
Brooks’ 53 runs without being out at Old Trafford helped the hosts move to within 60 runs of the tourists’ first innings total on Thursday.
He continued to be strong in the middle with wicket-keeper Jamie Smith (22) after seam bowler Asitha Fernando took the wickets of Ben Duckett (18), stand-in captain Ollie Pope (6) and Joe Root (42) in England’s reply to Sri Lanka’s 236 all out.
This continues Brooks’ strong start to his Test career: the 25-year-old is playing his 15th game and has already converted five of his fifties into centuries.
However, the Sri Lankans need not give up hope as they know that one more wicket would take them to the bottom of England.
Due to rain, no play was possible before the early lunch break.
England resumed play at 0-22 and Sri Lanka scored an early win after two DRS reversals in three balls.
Dan Lawrence successfully reviewed an LBW decision to stay in the middle, but Sri Lanka reviewed another LBW decision that had not been taken against Duckett and bowled the left-handed opener out.
Pope was bowled two overs later, Lawrence got a run off Vishwa Fernando for 30 and Root got a run from behind to wicketkeeper Dinesh Chandimal.
The partnership between Brook and Smith at the fifth wicket is 51.
It is the first of three Tests between the teams, with England beating the West Indies 3-0 earlier in the summer.
