Sri Lankans fight back in tour match

An innings of quality from Mahela Jayawardene has put the Sri Lankans into a commanding position against Middlesex at Shenley. With one day to go, the tourists lead by 193 runs with six wickets in hand. This was after the county side had been bowled out for 274 for a first innings lead of 88.

Middlesex had started the day on 178 for six, but they lost Ed Joyce when the Irishman was in sight of his third first-class century. When he had 93 he fell lbw to Charitha Buddika Fernando who then took the wicket of David Alleyne almost immediately to claim his fourth wicket of the innings.

Despite an undefeated 39 from Aaron Laraman, the rest of the innings did not detain the Sri Lankan bowlers for too long and the stage was left for Jayawardene and Hashan Tillekeratne to share an unbroken partnership of 179 for the fifth wicket. This was only after four of the top-order batsmen had again spurned the opportunity for batting practice in advance of the first Test by giving their wickets away far too easily.

However, Sri Lanka manager Chandra Shaffter pledged that it will be a different story at Lord's. "There will be a different atmosphere, a whole different ball game and the attitude of the players will be different," he said.

"Although some of the batting has in a sense been disappointing, I'm not unhappy with the situation because everybody has shown what they can do since we arrived in England.

"Virtually all the batsmen have had a good score and shown they can perform well at some stage."

But he was forced to concede: "Fewer boundaries and more runs might have been better. We weren't taking the ones and twos we should. They have been making the big hits but not the singles."

He added: "Overall, I'm satisfied. I am certainly in no way despondent. I'm sure we will be a different team when the Test comes along."

The manager will not want a different performance from the two not out batsmen. So far, Jayawardene has scored 125 and Tillekeratne 71, and the manager will be hoping they can go on to set up a morale-boosting victory on the final day of this game before the team head a few miles south to the venue of the first Test.