Cricket: England pressure falls short

England A 186; Sri Lanka A 190-7 Sri Lanka A win by three wickets

ENGLAND A fought against tour fatigue to fall to seven balls short of claiming a memorable victory and levelling the series in yesterday's second one-day international against Sri Lanka A.

Needing victory to draw level in the three-match series after their 142-run defeat in Moratuwa on Wednesday, England A made a determined attempt to defend a disappointing total of 186 but were unable to prevent Sri Lanka A succeeding in the penultimate over.

However, despite their failure to reach a challenging total, England bowled and fielded superbly and pressured Sri Lanka to such an extent that they needed 47 off the final 10 overs with three wickets remaining.

"We're very disappointed because we have lost the series but it was a magnificent effort in the field and we felt 186 was a bit short of a good total," Nick Knight, the captain, said. Ben Hollioake epitomised England A's determination by bowling Avishka Gunawardene with the first delivery of the innings.

England had suffered an equally disastrous start after being put into bat by losing Knight, Andrew Flintoff, Hollioake and Darren Maddy inside the opening 21 overs.

Sri Lanka A won toss

ENGLAND A

*N V Knight run out 29

A Flintoff c Gunawardene b Palliyaguru 10

B C Hollioake b Palliyaguru 3

O A Shah c and b Bandartilleke 65

D L Maddy st Dassanayake b Bandartilleke 4

D J G Sales c Jayawardene b Bandartilleke 18

M A Ealham st Dassanayake b Chandana 12

A F Giles c and b Chandana 10

D R Brown st Dassanayake b Chandana 9

C M W Read not out 4

D A Cosker run out 3

Extras (b3 lb9 w7) 19

Total (48.3 overs) 186

Fall: 1-22 2-27 3-63 4-86 5-132 6-139 7-155 8-166 9-169.

Bowling: Boteju 7-2-19-0; Palliyaguru 7-1-30-2; Hathurusinghe 3-0-17- 0; Jayawardene 3-0-16-0; Bandartilleke 10-1-28-3; Chandana 9-1-30-3; Kalpage 9.3-0-34-0.

SRI LANKA A

A Gunawardene b Hollioake 0

U C Hathurusinghe c Knight b Brown 16

R P Arnold not out 88

D R M Jayawardene c Read b Brown 4

P Hewage c Read b Hollioake 19

*R S Kalpage st Read b Maddy 9

U D U Chandana lbw b Maddy 5

R Palliyaguru c Cosker b Maddy 3

P B Dassanayake not out 30

Extras (lb4 w12) 16

Total (for 7, 48.5 overs) 190

Fall: 1-0 2-40 3-54 4-107 5-128 6-134 7-140.

Did not bat: N Bandartilleke, H Boteju.

Bowling: Hollioake 10-0-39-2; Brown 10-1-30-2; Ealham 9-0-31-0; Giles 9.5-0-46-0; Cosker 4-0-22-0; Maddy 6-0-18-3.

Umpires: T M Samarasinghe and I Anandappa.