Sri Lanka close in on consolation win
3rd Test - Day 3 - Cricket Web XI vs Sri Lanka - Asgiriya Stadium
Cricket Web XI started the day with Chris Butler and Dave Richards, and both were difficult for the Sri Lankan incumbents to negotiate. True to form Richards broke through with some flight, and Prassana Jayawardene was a victim of his over-zealousness, caught at mid-on for 2. As expected Pickup handed over bowling duties to Kennett at Butler's end. The move was a masterstroke, as it produced two breakthroughs via Kennett's continued resurgence. The first of the brace was crucially Tillekeratne Dilshan, caught well by a nervous Mørk behind the wicket.
Only two wickets were needed and though Richards was one away from a second career 5-for, Pickup took the new ball as soon as it became available. He asked Nick Borcich to use it, and that too was an effective choice. Within a 3-over spell, Borcich improved expensive figures with a brace of his own. Sri Lanka had to settle for 275 all out and a still impressive lead of 92 runs.
That left Cricket Web XI with a nervy mini-session of 38 minutes before lunch. And it was not long in before they met difficulty. A miserable series came to a close for Mørk (1) with a lacklustre push outside offstump to be caught behind. The struggling top order could have crumbled further had Dilshan clung on to a simple chance when Andrew Cloete had 13, but it was not until after lunch that Sri Lanka struck again. By then Cloete had looked closer to his best and hit 5 fours and a six en route for another Test 50. On 42 he made a fatal error, attempting to cut Muralitharan and supplying a thin edge behind.
The courage of the first innings was a distant memory when Butler (1) came and went to Mendis for a fourth time in the series. And the collapse continued with Will Kerr and his hard hands nicking to short leg for a duck. Enter Alex Blackman, the new man for a crisis, and he was quickly away sweeping Murali hard for a boundary. But he only added 2 more to his tally before he edged a doosra into the waiting hands of slip. At 93-5 CW XI relied heavily on Pete Young, who tried to save a poor personal series with a brave half-century.
His task got much more difficult too, with the cheap losses of Mike Wilson (6) and Dave Richards (3) - 129 for 7. Just the tail for comfort, Young continued to push on closer to an outstanding hundred. Mendis finally got the better of Borcich for 7 and quickly followed with the potentially frustrating Kennett before he had scored. It seemed Young was destined to be stranded short of his ton, especially as Pickup appeared clueless against Mendis and was twice dropped by Mathews in a remarkable couple of balls.
Young grabbed his new lease on life and slammed a short ball over midwicket for six and then chipped down the track to hit a boundary straight after. From 95 he added just the single before Mendis deceived him with some flight, and the opener was caught in the covers for 96. CW XI were all out for 181 and set a meagre target of 90 for Sri Lanka to pick up a consolation win.
In the 11 overs they faced on the evening the home side made excellent progress to 52-1. Borcich struck early to remove Malinga Warnapura (7), but Sangakkara made amends for his first innings duck with bold attacking strokeplay.
Cricket Web XI 1st Innings 183 ao (65.1 overs)
CR Butler 68, AJ Blackman 34, MW Wilson 25
MKDI Amerasinghe 4-49, M Muralitharan 3-33, WPUJC Vaas 3-51
Sri Lanka 1st Innings 275 ao (84.2 overs)
DPMD Jayawardene 82, TM Dilshan 62, BSM Warnapura 51
DP Richards 4-62, DM Kennett 3-45, NA Borcich 2-46
{B]Cricket Web XI 2nd Innings 181 ao (59.1 overs)[/B]
PE Young 96, AP Cloete 42, NS Pickup 6*
BAW Mendis 4-53, M Muralitharan 3-43
Sri Lanka 2nd Innings 52-1 (11 overs)
KC Sangakkara 42*, BSM Warnapura 7, DPMD Jayawardene 6*
NA Borcich 1-24
Sri Lanka require 38 runs to win with 9 wickets in hand.