ENG 171/5 | Stumps, Day 1 | England (ENG) vs Sri Lanka (SL) 2016 Live Cricket Score, 1st Test, Day 1: Get updates on live score and ball-by-ball commentary for Sri Lanka’s tour of England

Hello and welcome to CricketCountry’s live cricket blog and live cricket updates’ post of the first day’s play, between England and Sri Lanka at Headingley, Leeds. England and Sri Lanka will be playing three Tests, and there are a few limited-overs matches scheduled as well. England will be eyeing nothing less than revenge against Sri Lanka, who had stunned them with a series defeat in their last encounter in 2014. England had lost the three-match series 0-1, but this time around, they look set to for mauling the young and inexperienced Sri Lankan cricket team, which is going through a rebuilding phase. LIVE CRICKET SCORECARD: England vs Sri Lanka 2016, 1st Test at Leeds, Day 1

Live cricket scores and updates | England 171/5 | Stumps, Day 1 | Alex Hales 71, Jonny Bairstow 54 | Bad news, folks. Chances of play seem bleak as the rain continues. Worse, they are bringing on more covers. Keep an eye on this space. Ouch. They have called off play for the day. See ya tomorrow, folks. 

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Live cricket scores and updates | England 171/5 | Match delayed by rain after Tea | Alex Hales 71, Jonny Bairstow 54 | Alastair Cook 16(52) Alex Hales 71(154) Nick Compton 0(3) Joe Root 0(7) James Vince 9(27) Ben Stokes 12(9) Jonny Bairstow 54(67) Shaminda Eranga 10-3-34-1 Nuwan Pradeep 12-6-26-1 Angelo Mathews 6-1-24-0 Dushmantha Chameera 10-0-33-0 Dasun Shanaka 9-3-30-3 Rangana Herath 6-1-17-0

Live cricket scores and updates | England 171/5 | Tea | Alex Hales 71, Jonny Bairstow 54 | Herath tosses that one up, Bairstow comes down the pitch, first six of the match over long-on, 150 comes up for England! Herath traps Bairstow on the crease, they appeal, Aleem Dar says no, Angelo reviews, that was missing leg, Bairstow survives again! Herath tosses up, Bairstow tries to sweep, the ball brushes his pads and runs to the fence. He plays that to the third-man fence, and that is fifty for Jonny Bairstow, what an innings under pressure! Hales joins in, cover-driving Herath for four!

Live cricket scores and updates | England 148/5 | Session 2 | Alex Hales 65, Jonny Bairstow 41 | Herath continues. He pitches just short, Hales cuts hard, and the ball reaches the third-man fence. Hales goes for a wild swipe, misses completely, Chandimal whips off the bails and appeals. Hales survives. Mathews returns. Massive appeal from Angelo against Bairstow, he is given out, but Bairstow reviews! Let us see. It was missing leg, Bairstow lives to tell the tale!

Live cricket scores and updates | England 141/5 | Session 2 | Alex Hales 61, Jonny Bairstow 39 | Some resilience there, finally, from Hales and Bairstow. Hales cuts, sweeper picks it up, they run two. On comes Herath Mudiyanselage Rangana Keerthi Bandara Herath to weave his web. Bairstow pushes one to mid-off, that is the fifty-run partnership between Hales and Bairstow. Bairstow pushes one to deep mid-wicket, they scamper back for the second; he follows it with three past extra-cover, this is excellent running from both batsmen. Hales plays one to deep third-man (yes, they have a man there) to register his highest Test score.

Live cricket scores and updates | England 128/5 | Session 2 | Alex Hales 55, Jonny Bairstow 32 | Bairstow slashes hard at one outside off, gets four, hundred comes up! He follows that with another boundary, this time a gorgeous cover-drive! The pair continues cautiously. Bairstow hits another excellent cover-drive, this partnership is getting more and more crucial. Another cover-drive, Pradeep does an excellent job at deep extra-cover! Bairstow does not stop, he slices one behind point, four more!

Live cricket scores and updates | England 98/5 | Session 2 | Alex Hales 51, Jonny Bairstow 6 | Eranga and Pradeep have their tails up now, right on the spot, moving the ball around, getting them to lift off a length. Hales is gritting it out, playing probably the most crucial innings of his Test career, but he needs his mates to hang around him. Bairstow gets off the mark with a three past point. Lovely punch from Bairstow with an audible thwack past extra-cover, two more. Hales gets a long-awaited boundary through mid-off. Hales cuts Chameera behind point to bring up a well-deserved fifty!

Live cricket scores and updates | England 83/5 | Session 2 | Alex Hales 43, Jonny Bairstow 0 | Stokes walks out. He starts off in adventurous fashion, the flick flies past a diving square-leg, straight to the fence! He does not need to flirt with danger right now! He bludgeons the next one down the ground, looks like he is out on a mission: the question is, will he last? The next ball disappears to the cover boundary. Looks like he is out there to live and die by the sword. And as expected, Stokes does not get away with it, playing Pradeep to mid-wicket. That was a dolly. You may call that irresponsible plan, but it had come off at Newlands for him. Anyway. on to Bairstow.

OUT! Ben Stokes c Angelo Mathews b Nuwan Pradeep 9(12)!

Live cricket scores and updates | England 70/4 | Session 2 | Alex Hales 42, Ben Stokes 0 | Play resumes after lunch, Pradeep to Vince. Vince gets his first Test run with a cover-drive. Hales cuts Pradeep behind point for four. Eranga replaces Shanaka (why?). Now Vince gets his chance, lovely extra cover-drive off Eranga for four! Gorgeous from Vince, straight down the ground, played on the rise, four! And now Eranga bowls one straight, Vince goes for the straight drive, the ball takes the edge and flies to slip, four down!

OUT! James Vince c Kusal Mendis b Shaminda Eranga 9(27)!

Live cricket scores and updates | England 57/3 | Lunch | Alex Hales 38, James Vince 0 | Alastair Cook 16(52) Alex Hales 38*(87) Nick Compton 0(3) Joe Root 0(7) James Vince 0*(15) | Shaminda Eranga 6-1-14-0 Nuwan Pradeep 7-4-10-0 Angelo Mathews 3-1-15-0 Dushmantha Chameera 5-0-11-0 Dasun Shanaka 5-2-6-3 Rangana Herath 1-1-0-0

Live cricket scores and updates | England 57/3 | Session 1 | Alex Hales 38, James Vince 0 | Any chance of Herath before lunch? Yes, it is Herath. Remember, he is on the 297-wicket mark, and can run through any side. Good start, bang on target, he is giving the ball air, and why not? Sri Lanka are on top. A probing over from Herath. Back to Shanaka, hero of the day. Finally, the sun emerges, and for the first time in the day, Shanaka loses his radar. A wide, way outside off. Shanaka finishes the session with two deliveries way outside off, but he would leave the ground with his head held high. What a session for the debutant!

Live cricket scores and updates | England 56/3 | Session 1 | Alex Hales 38, James Vince 0 | Hales flicks Chameera behind square-leg, a single brings up England’s fifty! Shanaka strikes again, and the local boy falls for duck! Outside off, sucks Root into the drive, and Root is caught at semi-slip-semi-gully!

OUT! Joe Root c Kaushal Silva b Dasun Shanaka 0(7)!

James Vince, another debutant, walks out. He looks solid to begin with. Chameera maintains the pressure at the other end, bowling just short of a length. Shanaka bowls one on leg, and Hales dispatches it casually to the square-leg fence.

Live cricket scores and updates | England 49/2 | Session 1 | Alex Hales 31, Joe Root 0 | Chameera bowls a bouncer that sails above Hales’s head. He tries another one, but Hales gets on his toes and punches him to the backward-point fence for four. OUT! Shanaka strikes! Cook chases one outside off, and Chandimal makes no mistake! That was completely unnecessary from Cook, but look at the bright side, it is Shanaka’s maiden Test wicket.

OUT! Alastair Cook c Dinesh Chandimal b Dasun Shanaka 16(52)!

Three balls later Shanaka pitches one outside off, Compton edges, excellent low catch at first slip! After that over Shanaka’s figures read 2-2-0-2!

OUT! Nick Compton c Lahiru Thirimanne b Dasun Shanaka 0(3)!

Live cricket scores and updates | England 45/0 | Session 1 | Alastair Cook 16, Alex Hales 27 | Finally, the man you were waiting for: Dushmantha Chameera, to replace Pradeep (7-4-10-0). He can be quick. The mood changes almost immediately. Chameera is a yard or two quicker than the other, and almost immediately hits Hales on the ribs. Hales unleashes a cover-drive off Mathews, another four. He follows it with another four, this time off back-foot, past extra-cover. Decent line and good speed from Chameera at the other end. Debutant Dasun Shanaka replaces Mathews (3-1-15-0). Shanaka bowls a peach outside off, whizzes past the edge of Hales.

Live cricket scores and updates | England 28/0 | Session 1 | Drinks | Alastair Cook 15, Alex Hales 12 | Eranga oversteps, that is the first extra of the match. Ooh, he induces an edge, that flies between slip and gully, Hales was fortunate! Gorgeous cover-drive from Cook, for once Pradeep was off-target. Eranga and Pradeep continue, both probing outside off, and Cook and Hales continue with their cautious approach. Mathews comes on first-change, replacing Eranga (6-1-14-0). Mathews bowls one short, and Hales drives him off back-foot past extra-cover for four.

Live cricket scores and updates | England 13/0 | Session 1 | Alastair Cook 9, Alex Hales 4 | So far, so good for England. Eranga and Pradeep have stuck to a good line, and Cook and Hales have been cautious in their approach. Eranga gets one to kick off the surface, but Cook keeps it down safely, placing it towards square-leg for two. That was good batting. Pradeep pitches one on middle, slightly towards leg, and Hales flicks with ease for his first runs. Loud appeal from Pradeep, hales survives, that would have gone down leg. THere is still movement in the air, Pradeep is getting nice swing. Cook flicks one towards mid-wicket, for the first time the batsmen change ends! Cook plays out a maiden over from Pradeep, who has generally been sticking to a line outside off.

Live cricket scores and updates | England 6/0 | Session 1 | Alastair Cook 6, Alex Hales 0 | Shaminda Eranga starts proceedings to Cook. There is some early swing in the air, as is often the case with Headingley. There is some grass as well, so it will be a testing first hour for Cook and Hales. Decent length from Eranga in the first over. Cook looks very cautious. Eranga pitches the last ball on middle-and-leg, and Cook flicks easily for the first Test runs of the summer! Welcome back, Test cricket! Nuwan Pradeep from the other end, to Hales. Nice maiden over to begin with. A decent over from Eranga, Cook gets two from another flick. Stifled appeal from Pradeep, Hales is fine. Pradeep sticks to a line outside off, another maiden for him.

Live cricket scores and updates | Sri Lanka win toss and elect to bowl.

Sri Lanka: Angelo Mathews (c), Dinesh Chandimal (wk), Rangana Herath, Dimuth Karunaratne, Kaushal Silva, Kusal Mendis, Lahiru Thirimanne, Dasun Shanaka, Dushmantha Chameera, Shaminda Eranga, Nuwan Pradeep.

England: Alastair Cook (c), Jonny Bairstow (wk), James Anderson, Stuart Broad, Alex Hales, Nick Compton, Joe Root, James Vince, Ben Stokes, Moeen Ali, Steven Finn.

Heading into this series, all limelight has been on Alastair Cook and James Anderson, two of England’s biggest superstars who are nearing records. While Cook is mere 36 runs away from becoming the first England batsman to score 10,000 runs in Test cricket, Anderson is all set to surpass Indian legend Kapil Dev in the list of highest wicket-takers in the format. ALSO READ: ENG vs SL 2016, 1st Test at Headingley: Predictions and Preview

Anderson has 433 wickets in Test cricket, only 1 behind Kapil. Once the right-arm England bowler surpasses Kapil, he will rise to the sixth position in the list of most wicket-takers in the history of Test cricket. The list is dominated by former Sri Lankan spinner Muttiah Muralitharan, who has 800 wickets to his credit.

Coming back to this first Test, both England and Sri Lanka have had good time preparing for it. Sri Lankans arrived in England with a lot of time in their hands, and have played two warm-up matches. On the other hand, England cricketers too have geared up for this series by playing County cricket, which began very early this season.

Squads:

England: Alastair Cook (c), Moeen Ali, James Anderson, Jonny Bairstow (wk), Jake Ball, Stuart Broad, Nick Compton, Steven Finn, Alex Hales, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, James Vince.

Sri Lanka: Angelo Mathews (c), Dinesh Chandimal, Dushmantha Chameera, Dhananjaya de Silva, Niroshan Dickwella (wk), Shaminda Eranga, Nuwan Pradeep, Rangana Herath, Dimuth Karunaratne, Suranga Lakmal, Kusal Mendis, Dilruwan Perera, Dhammika Prasad, Dasun Shanaka, Kaushal Silva, Milinda Siriwardana, Lahiru Thirimanne.

LIVE CRICKET SCORECARD & BALL-BY-BALL COMMENTARY: England vs Sri Lanka 2016, 1st Test at Leeds, Day 1