Jayasuriya takes five but England Lions lead by 185

 Prabath Jayasuriya took five England Lion wickets  

• Rain curtails play on second day

Sri Lanka’s main spinner in their Test side left-armer Prabath Jayasuriya took a five-fer to bowl England Lions out for 324 of the 4-day warm-up match at Leicester yesterday, before rain washed out the rest of the second day.

Resuming at their overnight total of 145-4, England Lions progressed through fifties from Hamza Sheikh and Kasey Aldridge, the pair adding 104 for the seventh wicket after Sri Lanka had reduced the home team to 190-6. Hamza, the England Under-19 Captain against Sri Lanka Under-19 in the recently concluded series missed out on a century by nine runs when he was castled by Kasun Rajitha for a finely constructed 91 off 204 balls (7 fours). Aldridge, the more enterprising of the two struck 7 fours, and 2 sixes in his 96-ball 78.

Jayasuriya in a marathon spell of 31.2 overs, the most by a Sri Lankan bowler in the innings finished with figures of 5/102, while Rajitha picked up 2/51.

Sri Lanka who were disappointingly dismissed for 139 in their first innings, have the remaining two days of the match to redeem themselves ahead of the first Test against England starting at Old Trafford Wednesday week. This is Sri Lanka’s only warm-up match before the three-Test series.