Hoggard 5/25 restricts Lanka to 77/8

Chris Dhambarage

Fast bowler Matthew Hoggard produced the ingredients of success with a hostile opening spell as England clawed their way back in their attempt to register a morale boosting victory on day two of their second three day warm up match against the Sri Lanka Board President's XI continued at the NCC ground, Maitland Place yesterday.

The home side after gaining a good first innings lead of 164 runs slumped to 77 for 8 in their second innings with Hoggard claiming five wickets including three in one over. This was a fantastic effort from Hoggard who was spearheading the England attack in the absence of Steve Harmison and James Anderson.

In fact Harmison who is their main strike bowler is a doubtful starter for the first Test match in Kandy which begins on Saturday due to back spasms. Their latest injury worry was fellow paceman James Anderson who was temporarily sidelined with an ankle injury.

However Hoggard finally gave England some reason to smile as he ripped through the Sri Lanka Board XI top order with a splendid opening spell of nine overs.

Hoggard bowled the first innings top scorer Upul Tharanga in his second over and then removed skipper Tillekeratne Dilshan, Jehan Mubarak and Chamara Kapugedara in the space of four deliveries in his fifth over.

Ravi Bopara was forced to share the new ball with Hoggard in the absence of Harmison and Anderson, and even claimed the wicket of Test contender Malinda Warnapura leg before for four.

However the England batting did not look the same and they were in complete disarray which might be a major concern for them ahead of the first Test match against Sri Lanka.

In fact left arm seamer Sujeewa de Silva who is part of Sri Lanka's 14 member squad for the first Test turned out to be the chief wrecker with excellent figures of four wickets for 41 runs.

De Silva who played three Test matches against Bangladesh, began the collapse by bowling England captain Michael Vaughn in his very first over and followed up by capturing the wicket of Ian Bell in his third over.

His new ball partner Chanaka Welagedera reduced the tourists to 21 for 3 by sending back England's key player Kevin Pietersen for one before Kaushal Lokuarachchi trapped Alastair Cook (35) leg before to make it 44 for 4.

However Owais Shah who is fighting for a place in the Test team spent nearly one hour to get off the mark and contributed 26 useful runs before he was bowled by seamer Ishara Amarasinghe. Ravi Bopara who is hoping to make his Test debut also provided stiff resistance and was the lone batsman to defy the home team.

In fact Ravi Bopara top scored for England with a fighting knock of 47 and his innings was studded with four boundaries. The Sri Lanka Board President's XI also suffered a minor injury as Kaushal Lokuarachchi came off the field after bowling two balls in his eighth over.

SCOREBOARD

Sri Lanka Board President's XI 1st innings 298 for 9 decl 
(U. Tharanga 86, J. Mubarak 68, K. Silva 53, M. Hoggard 3-57, M. Panesar 3-67)

England 1st innings
A. Cook lbw b Lokuarachchi				35
M. Vaughan b de Silva                           	00
I. Bell c Silva b de Silva                      	03
K. Pietersen c Silva b Welagedera 	 		01
O. Shah b Amarasinghe					26
R. Bopara c Kapugedara b de Silva			47
M. Prior c Warnapura b Kapugedara 			10
M. Hoggard b de Silva                           	00
J. Anderson b Welagedera				00
M. Panesar not out                              	00
EXTRAS: (lb3, nb9)                             		12
TOTAL                                         		134
Did not bat (S. Harmison) 
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-6 (Vaughan), 2-20 (Bell), 3-21 (Pietersen), 
4-44 (Cook), 5-98 (Shah), 6-123 (Prior), 7-124 (Hoggard), 
8-134 (Bopara), 9-134 (Anderson).
Bowling: Welagedera 10.2-2-35-2 (nb4), de Silva 10-1-41-4 (nb5),
Kapugedara 7-2-15-1, Amarasinghe 11-4-16-1, Lokuarachchi 7.2-3-9-1, 
Dilshan 4.4-0-15-0.

Sri Lanka Board President's XI 2nd innings
U. Tharanga b Hoggard 					05
M. Udawatte c Prior b Bopara				45
M. Warnapura lbw b Bopara  				04
T. Dilshan c Shah b Hoggard 				03
J. Mubarak lbw Hoggard 					00
C. Kapugedara c Collingwood b Hoggard 			00
K. Silva c Prior b Hoggard                        	02
S. de Silva run out                               	04
C. Welagedera not out                             	05
I. Amarasinghe not out                            	00
EXTRAS: (b4, lb2, nb3)					09
TOTAL (for eight wickets) 				77
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-9 (Tharanga), 2-14 (Warnapura), 3-32 (Dilshan), 
4-32 (Mubarak), 5-32 (Kapugedara), 6-40 (Silva), 7-52 (de Silva), 
8-75 (Udawatte).
Bowling: Hoggard 9-3-25-5, Bopara 10-2-32-2 (nb3), Panesar 9-4-14-0, 
Pietersen 0.4-0-0-0.