MCC expose Sri Lankan batting frailties

Sri Lanka's confidence ahead of the final npower Test against England will hardly have been boosted by their performance in the rain-affected match against an MCC side full of England hopefuls, which ended today in a draw.

Sri Lanka were bowled out for just 127 in reply to the MCC's first innings 326 for seven declared. MCC captain David Fulton and Middlesex's Andrew Strauss then batted out 17 overs, declaring at 93 for no wicket to end the game early.

MCC resumed this morning on 270 for six, and batted for a further 15 overs before Fulton declared. Usman Afzaal, 25 tomorrow, completed a celebratory hundred, finishing on 111 not out with 11 fours and three sixes. The one wicket to fall was that of Richard Dawson, caught by Russel Arnold for 15 off Ruchira Perera, who finished with four for 66 off 20 overs.

James Kirtley and Kevin Dean then reduced the tourists to an embarassing 30 for five. Skipper Sanath Jayasuriya tried to hook Kirtley and top-edged a catch to wicket-keeper Chris Read. Kumar Sangakkara, in need of runs, was lbw padding up to Kirtley. Hashan Tillekeratne got a perfect Dean yorker before he had scored, and Arnold edged Dean to Afzaal at second slip. Upul Chandana was run out by a direct hit from Strauss attempting to get off the mark. Dean then accounted for Prasanna Jayawardene, who edged a straightforward catch to Read.

Simon Jones, included in England's 13-man squad for the Old Trafford Test, struck in his third over when Thilan Samaraweera was caught at short leg by Dawson. The tourists slipped to 57 for eight when Eric Upashantha, on eight, was caught behind cutting at Jones.

Only Aravinda de Silva, with an unbeaten 54 (49 balls, three sixes, five fours), provided real resistance. He put on 59 with Dilhara Fernando before the latter was caught behind, and off-spinner Dawson finished the innings by having last man Perera caught by Jones at deep backward point.

On the upside for the tourists, Sri Lanka manager Chandra Schaffter says their star bowler, Muttiah Muralitharan, is continuing to recover from his shoulder injury.

"He's much better than he was, but he's a long way from being 100% fit, and the final decision depends on him," Schaffter said. "I cannot say he will definitely play. If the Test was tomorrow he'd certainly be very keen to play."

Asked whether Sri Lanka would raise their game at Manchester, Schaffter said: "I think it will be difficult to perform much worse than we did at Edgbaston. I'm very confident we can do much better and I'm looking to contain England a little bit more than we did at Edgbaston.

"Players sometimes relax and don't take these matches too seriously. We did not do too well in any of the county games, by and large, and we can't take the results of these matches as a serious indication as to how we will perform."