Close Sri Lanka 211 for 3 (Jayasuriya 92, Sangakkara 62*)
scorecard Winning the toss and inserting the opposition may be central to Steve Waugh's great Test cricket revolution, but for Zimbabwe's stand-in captain Stuart Carlisle, the other side of the coin was all too apparent on a grim, rain-affected first day in Colombo.

Carlisle - who retained the captaincy at the last moment when the fit-again Brian Murphy did a Denness and left himself out because of poor form - put Sri Lanka in, but a fairly placid pitch at the SSC did not offer much assistance to his four-man seam attack, and Sri Lanka had moved sedately to 211 for 3 when rain forced an early close.

Sanath Jayasuriya, with a thrusting 92, was the man of the day but there was also time for Kumar Sangakkara to lay a platform from which he will hope to make his third Test hundred tomorrow.

Jayasuriya added 78 for the first wicket with Marvan Atapattu, who plodded along to 25 off 104 balls before he was strangled down the leg side off Heath Streak.

Sangakkara would have been run out without scoring had Henry Olonga's throw hit the stumps direct, but he soon settled in to a defensive groove and was happy to leave the bulk of the run-scoring to the increasingly fluent Jayasuriya, who punished the errant Olonga with a flurry of leg-side fours before tea.

But just as he was set for a ninth Test century, Jayasuriya top-edged a sweep off part-time offspinner Trevor Gripper and was caught by Andy Flower (150 for 2). Déjà vu for Jayasuriya, who for the fourth time in his last six Tests on this ground had fallen between 85 and 92, and the third in a row: he made 85 against West Indies and 89 against Bangladesh in his last two Tests here, as well as 85 against South Africa in 2000-01.

The decision to introduce Gripper (eight first-class wickets at 54 before this match) reaped further reward when Mahela Jayawardene, who had sparkled in racing to 18, came down the track and lofted to Carlisle, who took a fine catch running back from mid on (170 for 3).

Gripper's figures of 13-3-35-2 would have been even better had Sangakkara not cuffed him for a four and a six in his last over. That six brought up Sangakkara's third consecutive fifty on this ground, and he celebrated by cracking Grant Flower for two fours in as many balls just before the rains came.

With him at the close was Russel Arnold, who crawled to four not out and was perhaps fortunate to still be there after surviving a referral to the third umpire for a catch behind off Gary Brent, who was the pick of the attack with 0 for 26 off 17 thrifty overs. Zimbabwe were convinced the ball had carried but, as usual in these situations, replays proved inconclusive and the batsman was reprieved.

Teams
Sri Lanka 1 Sanath Jayasuriya (capt), 2 Marvan Atapattu, 3 Mahela Jayawardene, 4 Russel Arnold, 5 Kumar Sangakkara (wk), 6 Hashan Tillekeratne, 7 Thilan Samaraweera, 8 Muttiah Muralitharan, 9 Chaminda Vaas, 10 Nuwan Zoysa, 11 Charitha Fernando.

Zimbabwe 1 Stuart Carlisle (capt), 2 Grant Flower, 3 Andy Flower (wk), 4 Craig Wishart, 5 Gavin Rennie, 6 Hamilton Masakadza, 7 Travis Friend, 8 Henry Olonga, 9 Heath Streak, 10 Trevor Gripper, 11 Gary Brent.

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