England a morale boosting win before first Test

CHRIS DHAMBARAGE

The touring England team received a tremendous boost just four days ahead of the first Test match when they cruised to an easy five wicket victory over the Sri Lanka Board President's XI in the second three day warm up game concluded at the NCC ground in Maitland Place yesterday.

England successfully chased their victory target of 246 runs with opener Alastair Cook and Kevin Pieterson both completing fine half centuries.

Cook (58) and skipper Michael Vaughan (28) added 50 runs in less than ten overs for the first wicket, before Cook and Pietersen (59) added a further 65 runs for the third wicket that set the pace for their morale boosting victory.

Their success was even more significant considering the fact that they were bowled out for 134 runs in the first innings and had conceded a 165-run lead.

England's run chase of course was made much easier by the absence of leg-spinner Kaushal Lokuarachchi. He is expected to be out of action for at least two months after undergoing an operation on his dislocated right index finger an injury which he sustained while attempting to take a return catch off Bopara on Monday.

Even then Vaughan will be disappointed that he was not able to produce a more substantial innings after collecting three boundaries in one over from paceman Sujeewa de Silva.

With the team half-century posted as early as the 10th over, home team's skipper Tillakaratne Dilshan was forced to turn to the part-time medium pace of Jehan Mubarak.

In fact the change worked well, as an over-confident Vaughan advanced down the track and sliced to backward point. Cook batted cautiously and his innings lasted for nearly three hours in making a solid contribution of 58 runs from 114 deliveries with the help of six boundaries. The only batting concern for England was Ian Bell who managed to score just six runs. However Kevin Pietersen was in more desperate need of some time in the middle after making low scores of four and one in his two previous innings. He struck an early boundary to be 10 not out in the lunchtime score of 88 for 2, and then consolidated his position during the afternoon session.

Pietersen timed the ball beautifully, stroking five boundaries and one six in a polished knock of 59 off 86 deliveries. England lost their fifth wicket with the score on 210 with Jehan Mubarak capturing his second wicket.

This time it was Ravi Bopara whose stubborn resistance came to an end having occupied the crease for nearly one hour.

But Owais Shah who is also fighting for a place in the England Test team guided them home with an unbeaten 33 from 65 balls with three boundaries. His unbroken sixth wicket stand with wicket keeper batsman Matt Prior was worth 37 runs.

Earlier the Sri Lanka Board President's XI could add just four runs to their overnight total with James Anderson returning back to the field to capture the final wicket.

SCOREBOARD

SRI LANKA CRICKET XI
1ST INNINGS 298-9 dec.
ENGLAND - 1ST INNINGS 134
SRI LANKA CRICKET XI 
2ND INNINGS
(overnight 77 -8)

U. Tharanga b Hoggard 			 5
M. Udawatte c Prior b Bopara 		45
M. Warnapura lbw b Bopara 		 4
T. Dilshan c Shah b Hoggard 		 3
J. Mubarak lbw Hoggard 			 0
C. Kapugedara c Collingwood b Hoggard 	 0
K. Silva c Prior b Hoggard 		 2
S. de Silva run out 			 4
C. Welagedera c Prior b Anderson 	 9
I. Amarasinghe not out 			 0
K. Lokuarachchi absent hurt 		 -
Extras (b-4, lb-2, nb-3) 		 9
TOTAL (overs 30) 			81

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), 9-81 (Welagedera).
BOWLING: Hoggard 9-3-25-5, Bopara 10-2-32-2 (nb3), 
Panesar 9-4-14-0, Pietersen 1-1-0-0, Anderson 1-0-4-1.

ENGLAND 
2ND INNINGS

A. Cook lbw b Mubarak 		 	 58
M. Vaughan c Dilshan b Mubarak 		 28
I. Bell c Welegedera b Dilshan 		  6
K. Pietersen c Silva b Kapugedara 	 59
O. Shah not out 			 33
R. Bopara c and b Mubarak 		 21
M. Prior not out 			 27
Extras (lb-3, nb-10, w-2) 		 15
TOTAL (for five wickets) 		247

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-50 (Vaughan), 2-74 (Bell), 3-139 (Cook), 
4-167 (Pietersen), 5-210 (Bopara).
BOWLING:  Welagedera 11-1-38-0 (nb4, w1), de Silva 10-0-53-0 (nb3, w1),
 Amarasinghe 9-0-38-0, Mubarak 15-0-57-3 (nb3), Dilshan 9-1-34-1, 
Kapugedera 7-1-24-1.