Sri Lanka did bounce back from their dismal start of being bundled out for 139 to scoring 306 in the second innings on innings of 77 by Nishan Madushka, 66 by skipper Dhananjaya de Silva and 51 by Angelo Mathews, but it was not likely to prevent England Lions from winning as they ended the third day of the warm up match on 47 for 2 chasing 122 for victory yesterday at the County Ground, New Road, Worcester on Friday.
Madushka was the pick of the Lankan batsmen crossing the boundary 8 times in a composed stay at the wicket having added 105 for the first wicket with Dimuth Karunaratne who scored 43.
Angelo Mathews then played a rescuing innings of 51 finding the boundary on 6 occasions in putting on 69 for the fifth-wicket with skipper Dhananjaya de Silva who also displayed good form ahead of the August 21 first test against England. The duo steadied a 4-wicket collapse in the space of 69 balls with the Lankan captain going on to add a further 51 for the sixth-wicket with Sadeera Samarawickrama who scored 25.
Dhananjaya de Silva went on to claim two wickets in successive balls with England Lions on 33 when he bowled Ben McKinney for 20 and had Oliver Price caught by Kusal Mendis next ball without scoring.
But the Lions, on 47 that took only 7 overs, were close to victory when the game resumes on the fourth day with first innings top scorer Hamza Shaikh unbeaten on 8 in the wake of his 91.
CHIEF SCORES:
Sri Lanka 139 (Dimuth Karunaratne 26, Prabath Jayasuriya 20, Zaman Akhter 5/32, Josh Hull 3/30) And 306 (87.1 Overs) (Nishan Madushka 77, Dhananjaya de Silva 66, Angelo Mathews 51, Sadeera Samarawickrama 25, Farhan Ahmed 3/87, Lyndon James 2/34, Josh Hull 2/44, Zaman Akhter 2/59)England Lions 324 (Hamza Shaikh 91, Kasey Aldridge 78, Ben McKinney 46, Rob Yates 25, Oliver Priceee 22, James Rew 22, Prabath Jayasuriya 5/102, Kasun Rajitha 2/51, Milan Rathnayake 1/65, Lahiru Kumara 1/92) And 47/2 (7 Overs) (Ben McKinney 20, Rob Yates 17, Hamza Shaikh n.o. 8, Oliver Price n.o. 0, Dhananjaya de Silva 2/13)