Cricket: England A shrug off troubles and press on towards victory

England A 353 & 244-3 Sri Lanka A 249 & 2-0

England A are to continue their tour of Sri Lanka providing nothing similar to Sunday's bomb in Kandy happens again. Graham Gooch, the tour manager, will meet the Sri Lankan Cricket Board today to propose changes to the itinerary and a move away from potential troublespots.

The squad shrugged off the distractions to move into a winning position on the third day of their match with a Sri Lankan President's XI here, building a 348-run lead with a disciplined batting display after wrapping up the Sri Lankans' first innings.

The Sri Lankans, resuming on on 204 for 7, were dismissed for 249, a deficit of 104. England later declared on 244 for 3, after half-centuries by Steve James, Nick Knight and Darren Maddy.

President's XI won toss, third day of four

ENGLAND A - First innings: 353 (A Flintoff 83, S P James 57, D L Maddy 51).

PRESIDENT'S XI - First Innings

(Overnight: 204 for 7)

S Ranatunga not out 120

A Galugoda c Read b Hutchison 0

A Lankatillake run out 4

R Perera b Ormond 8

Extras (b3 lb5 w1 nb7) 16

Total (85 overs) 249

Fall: 1-28 2-62 3-93 4-137 5-166 6-184 7-185 8-204 9-231.

Bowling: Ormond 13-2-52-2; Hutchison 19-5-54-3; Ealham 8-2-23-1; Giles 29-9-73-3; Cosker 16-5-39-0.

ENGLAND A - Second Innings

S P James c & b N Perera 56

N V Knight c Waragoda b N Perera 56

D L Maddy c & b Galugoda 6

M A Ealham not out 40

A Flintoff not out 10

Extras (b10 lb2 w2 nb3) 17

Total (for 3 dec, 64 overs) 244

Fall: 1-111 2-130 3-229.

Did not bat: D J Sales, A F Giles, J Ormond, C M W Read, D A Cosker, P M Hutchison.

Bowling: Boteju 5-0-2600; Lankatillake 6-0-18-0; R Perera 5-1-17-0; Galugoda 20-6-51-1; N Perera 19-3-76-2; Ranatunga 8-1-34-0; Peiris 1-0-10-0.

PRESIDENT'S XI - Second Innings

R Peiris not out 2

T M Dilshan not out 0

Total: (for 0, 5 overs) 2

To Bat: S Ranatunga, W Waragoda, S Silva, M Mendis, H Boteju, N Perera, A Galugoda, A Lankatillake, R Perera.

Bowling: Ormond 2-1-2-0; Ealham 2-2-0-0; Giles 1-1-0-0.

Umpires: E K G Wijewardana and T H Wijewardana.

- Myles Hodgson, Colombo