Sri Lanka were 4-155 at tea on the opening day of the second cricket Test against England at the P. Sara Oval in Colombo on Tuesday.

Skipper Mahela Jayawardene was unbeaten on 74 – his 41st Test half-century – and Angelo Mathews was on one.

Thilan Samaraweera had earlier made 54.

Jayawardene and Samaraweera put on a 124-run partnership, steering Sri Lanka away from a precarious 3-30.

In the opening session, England seam bowler James Anderson rattled Sri Lanka’s top order with three wickets to give the tourists a promising start.

Sri Lanka reached 3-82 at lunch after winning the toss and opting to bat.

Anderson used the early moisture in the pitch to good effect to dismiss openers Tillakaratne Dilshan (14), Lahiru Thirimanne (8) and Kumar Sangakkara for a first ball duck for the second time in three innings.

England, whose defeat at Galle in the first Test followed a 3-0 rout by Pakistan in the United Arab Emirates earlier in the year, need a win to draw the series and retain their No.1 ranking.

Andrew Strauss’s men will slip to second spot behind South Africa if they lose or draw the match.

The tourists went in with a three-man seam attack, bringing in Tim Bresnan and Steven Finn to partner Anderson with the new ball. Spinner Monty Panesar was dropped, while Stuart Broad flew home with a calf injury.

Sri Lanka made two changes from the side that won by 75 runs in Galle, as a fit-again Mathews and Dhammika Prasad returned in place of Dinesh Chandimal and Chanaka Welegedara.