Cricket: England eclipsed

ENGLAND A ended their eight-week winter tour with a 41-run defeat in the third and final one-day international here yesterday. It gave Sri Lanka A, convincing winners in the previous two matches in the series, a 3-0 whitewash and made amends for the tourists' 2-0 Test series victory.

Chasing Sri Lanka's 236 for 9, England slumped to 195 all out after the leg-spinner Upal Chandana claimed 5 for 46 and only Darren Maddy passed 50. England's reply began badly with their top four batsmen falling in the opening 23 overs to leave Maddy with the responsibility of attempting to rescue the perilous situation.

The Leicestershire batsman, England's top run scorer on tour, hit a carefully compiled 70 and shared in a vital sixth- wicket partnership of 61 with Ashley Giles. But both batsmen fell in a spell of three wickets in 24 balls by Chandana to end England's challenge and the tour on a disappointing note. The tourists had earlier produced an impressive bowling and fielding display to limit Sri Lanka to their challenging total.

A quick-fire opening partnership threatened a repeat of the opening one day match when they raced to 326 for 6 in their 50 overs. Giles, the Warwickshire left-arm spinner, claimed 3 for 34 while Maddy again produced a useful spell with his part-time bowling to claim 2 for 52.

The opener Chandika Hathurusinghe top-scored for Sri Lanka with 51 off 72 balls but the lower-order batsman Pubudu Dassanayake pushed his side beyond 200 by hitting a thrilling 19 off just nine balls including 15 off the final over from Maddy.