Buttler, Curran help Eng to 285
Sam Curran exhibited his six-hitting prowess and Jos Buttler made an enterprising 63 to help England overcome a top order collapse and post 285 in the first innings on the opening day of the second Test against Sri Lanka on Wednesday.
England were reeling at 89 for 4 when Buttler steadied the innings before Curran clobbered six sixes in his blistering 64 to help them to a competitive score.
Sri Lanka lost Kaushal Silva in their wobbly reply to be 26 for 1 at stumps, trailing by 259 runs.
Dimuth Karunaratne was batting on 19 with Malinda Pushpakumara on one at the other end.
Earlier, England captain Joe Root won the toss and unsurprisingly elected to bat as the tourists, 1-0 up in the three-match series, sought to build on their victory in Galle last week.
England shuffled their batting lineup and Ben Stokes (19) was unable to justify his promotion to number three, the all-rounder surviving a review before succumbing to a second to be trapped lbw by Dilruwan Perera (4-61).
SCORES IN BRIEF
ENGLAND: First innings 285 (Burns 43, Buttler 63, Curran 64; Perera 4-61, Pushpakumara 3-89)
SRI LANKA: First innings 26 for 1 (Karunaratne 19 not out; Leach 1-7)
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