England secure early tour victory

In front of a sprinkling of English spectators being cooled by circular fans in the pavilion and five contented ponies chewing on a grass bank, England completed their first victory of the tour at P. Saravanamuttu Oval today. They defeated a Sri Lanka board President's XI, which contained four players with Test experience, by 165 runs and will travel south to the coastal town of Matara tomorrow satisfied with their first 10 days in Sri Lanka.

They will be given extra cheer by the news from New Zealand that Sri Lanka's master off spinner, Muttiah Muralitharan, has aggravated the groin injury that he sustained during Sri Lanka's ill-fated tour of South Africa. The true extent of the injury is as yet unclear. The fact that it is a recurrence of an earlier injury though is bound to be of great concern to the Sri Lankan management.

Hussain was delighted with his team's performance: "I was very pleased with the team. We bowled well and created a lot of chances." Nevertheless, he warned that the team would have improve if they are to succeed in the Test series: "We beat a decent side today, but in ten days' time the side we play is going to be a lot better. We saw how well that Dilshan and Tillakaratne played here and they can't even get in the national team. Everybody has got some work to do."

The Sri Lankan board President's XI resisted the English bowlers for 63 overs today, but were always unlikely to bat out the day having lost three wickets last night. They started the morning well though as the impressive Tillakaratne Dilshan followed his sparkling knock in the first innings with a cameo 45 from 78 balls in the second.

In contrast to his dour defence last night as Darren Gough pounded up to the wicket under the cool evening sun, he began like a man determined to win the match in time for an afternoon dip in the Indian Ocean. When Giles was introduced into the attack after a five-over opening burst from Andy Caddick, Dilshan danced down the wicket and essayed him over long off for six and then drove powerfully through the off side for four.

However, Dilshan failed to temper his aggression and he skimmed a low catch to Michael Atherton at short extra cover in the 16th over of the day. England breathed a sigh of relief and Ashley Giles frustrated Chamara Silva into lofting a catch to Andrew Caddick at mid on for a duck. The President's XI were 78 for five.

An embarrassing slump in front of the national selectors was then avoided by Hashan Tillakaratne who batted 199 minutes for his 43 runs and survived numerous appeals from a frustrated fielding side.

Indeed, the frequency of appeals was a disappointing feature of the match. On two occasions today the England players prematurely commenced a congratulatory huddle in the middle of the wicket only to be denied by the umpires. England looked to have learned from the rowdy and speculative appealing of the opposition in the first two games and adopted an "if you can't beat them join them attitude".

"There was a lot of appealing in the game by both sides as there is likely to be with the spinners on and men around the bat," Hussain said afterwards. "You have to play the percentages, but not over-appeal. Sometimes the umpires agreed with us and sometimes they didn't, but we will keep appealing."

Prassana Jayawardene joined Hashan Tillakaratne at the crease and the pair added 41 runs for the sixth wicket. Jayawardene would have dearly loved some runs in front of the selectors, who are reluctant to select a wicket-keeper unless he is able to score a Test century. His opportunity to impress, however, was cut short by Darren Gough who mixed up his bowling well and was rewarded when he induced an edge that was snapped up by Atherton low down to his right at first slip.

Seven overs later the Sri Lankan resistance was effectively ended when Tillakaratne gloved a sweep and was caught by Nasser Hussain at leg slip to leave the President's XI on 128 for seven. Puspakumara was then padded Michael Vaughan a catch at silly point to give Ashley Giles his fourth wicket and Michael Vaughan mopped up, like he did in the first innings, with two wickets from 3.2 overs.

The England team departs for Galle tomorrow where they will train on Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday. Then, on Thursday, they start their last practice game before the First Test Match.

The Sri Lankan team meanwhile returns home from New Zealand tomorrow as the Sri Lankan selectors deliberate over the final squad for the First Test Match in Galle, which commences in 11 days' time. Assuming that Muralitharan is fit, then their primary concerns will be identifying the best spinner to partner him and whether to include seven batsmen at the expense of a top class wicket-keeper.