Embarrassment and concern ahead of First Test

Sa'adi Thawfeeq reporting from England

CRICKET: It was not perhaps the best result that Sri Lanka were looking for a few days ahead of the first cricket Test against England at Lord's when they were beaten by a team of England hopefuls at Worcester with more than a day to spare.

A ten-wicket defeat against England 'A' was not only an embarrassment but must have dented their confidence a lot and affected their preparations somewhat.

What Sri Lanka was up against were a team of individuals keen to catch the England selectors eyes ahead of the Lord's Test. With injuries to three of their fast bowlers Anderson, Jones and Harmison it was a chance England's Test hopefuls were not going to miss out on.

In conditions ideally suited for swing coupled with variable bounce Gloucestershire fast bowler Jon Lewis revelled to take a match bag of nine wickets and put his name on the short list for inclusion into the final eleven.

So did Liam Plunkett who took four wickets in the match. Both were included in England's squad of 13 along with Sajid Mahmood who was rested from the practice match. Although Lewis was the main destroyer of the Lankan batting he was still wary of the tourists potential.

Lewis said that he was not sure Sri Lanka's performance at Worcester was a true reflection of how good the batting was. "They have struggled for runs but I think you'll find on Thursday that they will be a lot more composed. I don't think this pitch will be anything like the one at Lord's," he said.

Sri Lanka were shot out for totals of 179 and 188 after choosing to bat first. The problem with their batsmen was that they didn't move their feet a lot to get towards the moving ball and a result got into a lot of trouble. They more or less played behind the crease not making any movement to get to the ball more. It is an area they will have to really work hard at ahead of the first Test on Thursday.

The Lankan batting line up was more or less the one that will front up at Lord's and the only batsman to impress at Worcester was Tillakaratne Dilshan who top scored in both innings with 47 and 40.

The biggest concern for Sri Lanka is the lack of runs from their two experienced pair the captain Mahela Jayawardene and his deputy Kumar Sangakkara whose combined total of runs on the tour is a mere 139 from eight first class innings. None of them have crossed the fifty-run mark in one innings.

Although Tharanga, Vandort and Samaraweera have been in the runs on tour and Dilshan getting closer to his best form in the game at Worcester, the most consistent has been new boy Chamara Kapugedera who is the leading run getter with 192 runs from six innings.

He has played as a middle order batsman in all three first-class matches and impressed with scores of 13, 49, 45, 44 (n.o.), 36 and 5. With Lewis, Plunkett and Mahmood he could be a front-runner to make his Test debut at Lord's.