England A complete comfortable win

England A 258 for 7 (Solanki 61, Bell 58) beat Sri Lanka Cricket Combined XI 174 (Udawatthe 52, Dawson 4-27) by 84 runs Scorecard

England A eased to a comfortable 84-run victory in their warm-up match ahead of the triangular tournament with Sri Lanka A and Pakistan A. An impressive bowling performance meant the Combined XI never threatened to reach their target of 259, Richard Dawson taking advantage of the batsman being under pressure, to finish with 4 for 27.

The foundation for England's score was laid by an aggressive opening stand of 88 between Vikram Solanki and Matt Prior. The openers scored freely against the seam bowlers, Prior showing the form that brought him his impressive century in the 2nd unofficial Test, before falling to Jeevantha Kulatunga. Solanki fell to Test offspinner Kumar Dharmasena and Michael Powell was caught and bowled for 16 as England got slightly bogged down against the spinners.

It was left to Ian Bell and Alistair Cook to ensure the momentum was not lost, Bell notched up another half-century and Cook scored at almost a run-a-ball. But a clatter of wickets meant England couldn't make the most of the latter overs, although it allowed most of the top-order got some valuable time in the middle.

Jon Lewis produced an impressive burst with the new ball to put the Combined XI on the back foot early, and Rikki Clarke chipped in with two of his own. Dawson then ran through the middle-order to give the England management some selection headaches ahead of England's opening match against Sri Lanka A on Monday.