Rain restricts play to 40 minutes at Asgiriya

Sa'adi Thawfeeq reporting from Kandy

KANDY, Monday - The opening day's play of the first four-day unofficial cricket test between Sri Lanka 'A' and Pakistan 'A' was restricted to just 40 minutes before rain washed out play at the Asgiriya International Stadium here today.

In that brief period, Sri Lanka 'A' opting to bat first after winning the toss scored 35 for the loss of Avishka Gunawardena's wicket for six. The hard-hitting left-hander was lbw to a full toss from Najah Shah in the third over of the innings.

Michael Vandort and Ian Daniel were together on 14 and nine respectively when bad light followed by heavy rain put an end to the day's proceedings.

Play did not commence until 1.30 p.m. because of a great deal of moisture on the pitch as a result of the it being covered for two consecutive days due to rain.

The entire morning session was taken up drying the pitch although there was nothing wrong with the outfield. Sri Lanka 'A' went into the match with seven specialist batsmen, a move which bordered on the defensive but one which also spoke a lot about the uncertainty in their batting line up.

The fact that Sri Lanka 'A' settled for an additional batsman ahead of a frontline spinner was because both Arnold and skipper Mubarak could turn their arm over bowling off-breaks to if leg-spinner Malinga Bandara needed any kind of assistance.

Asgiriya has a history of rain affected international matches and today's early abandonment was nothing new. Play is due to commence today at 10 a.m.

SRI LANKA ‘A’ 1ST  INNINGS 

M.G. Vandort not out			14
D.A. Gunawardena lbw b Najaf		6
G.I. Daniel not out			9

Extras (LB-4, NB-1, W-1)		6

TOTAL (one wkt at close, 8.2 overs, 40 mts)	35

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-15. 

TO BAT: J. Mubarak, R.P. Arnold, M.K. Gajanayake,  H.A.P.W. Jayawardene, 
M.R.G. Wijekoon, C.M. Bandara, C.R.D. Fernando, P.N.  Ranjith. 
BOWLING: Najaf 4.2-0-21-1 (1w. 1nb), Asif  4-1-10-0. 
PAKISTAN ‘A’: Misbah-ul-Haq, Wajahatullah Wasti, Hasan Raza, Bzid Khan, 
Faisal Iqbal, Hasan Raza, Yasir Arafat, Zulqarnain Haider,  Imran Thahir, 
Mohammad Asif, Aamir Bashir.