Harare, November 8

Dhananjaya de Silva and Asela Gunaratne made centuries to take Sri Lanka to 504 all out in their first innings in the second Test match against Zimbabwe on Monday.

Zimbabwe were 126-2 in reply at stumps on the second day, with opener Brian Chari and Craig Ervine both 60 not out in an unbroken stand of 109 to give the home team a small hope of saving the series. Sri Lanka lead the two-match series 1-0 and made yet another strong start.

De Silva completed his century on the opening day and went on to make 127, and Gunaratne registered his maiden ton on Monday, eventually hitting 116 with 15 fours and a six.

Sri Lanka recovered from 112-4 through the efforts of de Silva and Gunaratne, who made his debut in the series-opener and justified his selection for the series with experienced batsmen Angelo Mathews and Dinesh Chandimal out injured.

Seamer Donald Tiripano and captain Graeme Cremer took three wickets each for Zimbabwe but Sri Lanka’s big first-innings score still gave it control of the match.

That control was much firmer when Sri Lankan skipper Rangana Herath (2-44) trapped Tino Mawoyo lbw for three and had Hamilton Masakadza caught for a duck in the space of three balls in the sixth over. At 17-2, Zimbabwe were really struggling.

Chari and Ervine rebuilt and counterattacked.

Chari smashed two sixes to go with his six fours and also twice benefited from the decision review system, which is being used in Zimbabwe for the first time.