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SL President XI v England XI

Sunday, November 16 2003

With several of England's key players rested for today's game, it was the perfect chance for the likes of Strauss, Batty, McGrath and Kirtley to show their credentials for the upcoming series against Sri Lanka.

The England team must have felt right at home when they arrived at the ground in Moratuwa this morning to find the weather drizzly and damp, characteristic of an English autumn. This rain held play up at the start for 2 hours but was to also be the final of demise of game. Both innings were subsequently reduced to 38 overs per side.

Anthony McGrath, as a stand-in for Michael Vaughan as the skipper, won the toss and took the chance for his makeshift batting line-up to get some practice in different conditions.

Solanki, however, seems intent on not troubling the scorers as he, rather unluckily, was struck just outside the line for another duck from five balls for a total of 11 runs in the last 4 innings. His opening partner Chris Read seemed untroubled as he made a pacey 34 which included several confident boundaries.

After Solanki's demise, Andy Strauss joined Read at the crease looking to push himself into the narrow eyesight of the selectors. His only other innings of the winter so far resulted in an assured 51 against BCB Development Squad XI, his innings today is going to do no harm at all to his cause as he struck an excellently paced 83 from 88 balls and sharing in a 110 partnership with Ian Blackwell. Blackwell was introduced as Read fell to Ramyakumara and Clarke managed to survive one ball before being bowled through the gate for 0.

Ian Blackwell has also played just one innings this tour but appears to be in excellent form with the willow as he struck a high-velocity high-powered 63 (52 balls) including 3 huge sixes. At the death, Gareth Batty showed he's no rabbit with the bat as a quickfire 24 from 10 deliveries pushed England upto 237/8 from their allotted overs. The pick of the bowlers being Nandika Ranjith returning figures of 2/32 from his 8 overs.

The Sri Lankans XI innings was a stark reminder that Sri Lanka are not going to be the pushover that Bangladesh ended up being. Vandort and Jayantha begin their innings' with an 'all you can eat' buffet provided by the England bowlers as line and length varied greatly.

The English bowlers soon found out that you couldn't bowl short to these openers as you could against the Bangladeshis but only after Johnson was despatched out of the ground by Jayantha and Vandort's height meant he wasn't troubled either. Solanki made a contribution in the field if not the bat by a taking an extremely deft catch in the gully to dismiss Jayantha for a neat 24. A nicely balanced game was interrupted by Mother Nature as the clouds opened their contents onto the ground and the game was abandoned as Sri Lanka President's XI reached 76/1 (17.1 overs), Vandort and Ramyakumara on 39* and 1* respectively.

A mix of a match for England with the bowlers looking wayward, Solanki mis-firing consistently and Rikki Clarke getting an egg but also two big positives with Strauss and Blackwell making hefty contributions with the bat.

England XI 237/8 (38 overs)
(Strauss 83, Blackwell 63, Read 34; Ranjith 2/32)

Sri Lanka Cricket President's XI 76/1 (17.1 overs)
(Vandort 39*, Jayantha 24; Kirtley 1/12)

CricketWeb Man Of The Match: Andrew Strauss

Match Abandoned (no result)





Posted by Peter