KUSAL Perera’s maiden century supported by fifties from openers Kaushal Silva and Dimuth Karunaratne ensured that Sri Lanka close the opening day of the First Test against Zimbabwe in the driver’s seat at Harare Sports Club on Saturday.

At close of play, Sri Lanka were 317-4 after 90 overs in the first innings justifying their decision to bat first upon toss win.

The highlights of the day were some powerful top order batting displays from Perera (110 off 121 balls) who brilliantly complemented work started by Silva (94) and Karunaratne (56) in an opening stand of 123.

The partnership was broken just after lunch when Zimbabwe captain and leg spinner Graeme Cremer had Karunaratne caught at mid-wicket by Tino Mawoyo in the 38th over.

There were multiple occasions when Zimbabwe left-off wicket-taking chances, mostly catches –some tight-, which could have made their day in the field a bit easier had there been more alertness.

Perera came at number three joining Silva and the pair continued with the torment that added on 75 runs before the latter was caught at mid-on by Sean Williams off Malcolm Waller (1-25) post the tea interval.

Apart from not taking some their chances, Zimbabwe would also count themselves unlucky as one of the lbw shouts turned down by umpire Ian Gould would have claimed the wicket of Kusal Mendis while he was on 18.

Hawk-eye suggested that Chris Mpofu’s delivery was hitting stumps which would have sent the batsman back to the pavilion.

However, Zimbabwe moved on and kept on searching for wickets into the final hour and this time Mendis (34) was caught by wicketkeeper Peter Moor to become Cremer second victim.

The union between Perera and Mendis added on 84 runs for the third wicket.

Perera, 15 fours and two sixes, would get his milestone in the 77th over with a boundary but only added 10 more runs before getting dismissed by Cremer (3-82); caught by Waller at extra cover.

Upul Tharanga (13 not out) and Dhananjaya de Silva (10 not out) are at the crease and will be expected to continue with the piling of runs while Zimbabwe look to strike early on the second day on Sunday.