Cricket: Zimbabwe indebted to Flower

Zimbabwe 256-8 v Sri Lanka

ZIMBABWE'S CAPTAIN, Andy Flower, led from the front with a gritty 86 to provide the anchor for an uneven batting display from his side on the opening day of the first Test against Sri Lanka here yesterday.

At the close of play Zimbabwe, having been put in, had reached 256 for 8 on a good batting wicket. Their total owed much to the contributions of Flower - in his second spell as captain after recently taking over from Alistair Campbell - and Murray Goodwin, who scored 61 and put on 99 for the fourth wicket with his captain.

Flower, who later found a useful ally in Bryan Strang, with an unbeaten 22, was caught shortly before the close when cutting the pace bowler Pramodya Wickramasinghe, who ended the day with 4 for 44.

First day of five; Sri Lanka won toss

Zimbabwe - First innings

G W Flower c Arnold b Wickramasinghe 17

G J Rennie lbw b Wickramasinghe 16

M W Goodwin c Jayasuria

b Wickramasinghe 61

N Johnson c Arnold b Vaas 17

*A Flower c Muralitharan

b Wickramasinghe 86

A D R Campbell run out (Dilshan) 0

G J Whittall run out (Kaluwitharana) 11

G B Brent c Jayawardena b Muralitharan 0

B C Strang not out 22

A R Whittall not out 0

Extras (lb-4 nb-22) 26

Total (for 8) 256

Fall: 1-37 2-38 3-68 4-167 5-167 6-212 7-212 8-250.

To bat: H K Olonga.

Bowling: Vaas 23-3-75-1 (nb10); Gallage 14-1-53-0 (nb5); Wickramasinghe 17-5-44-4 (nb2); Muralitharan 20-3-61-1 (nb5); Arnold 6-3-8-0; Jayasuria 7-1-11-0.

Sri Lanka: *S T Jayasuria, M S Atapattu, R P Arnold, D P M de S Jayawardena, T Dilshan, S I de Saram, R S Kaluwitharana, W P U J C Vaas, G P Wickramasinghe, I S Gallage, M Muralitharan.