Dimuth Karunaratne scores century in draw against Leicestershire

After several failures, Dimuth Karunaratne yesterday scored a century against Leicestershire which is likely to cement his place in the first Test against England.

Sri Lanka scored 200 for the loss of 4 wickets in their second innings as the three-day match ended in a draw.  Earlier on Leicestershire scored 375 for loss of five wickets before declaring in response to Sri Lanka's first innings total of 367. Several Leicestershire batsman missed scoring a century. M.G.K. Burgess got out for 98 whilst T.J. Wells remained unbeaten at 87.

Karunaratne scored 100 off 134 balls before retiring hurt. His innings included 16 fours. Lahiru Thirmanne was unbeaten 40 whilst J.K. Silva scored 43.  Chief Scores: Sri Lanka 367 (D Shanaka 112, K Mendis 65, R Herath 55) and 200-4 (D Karunaratne 100) v Leicestershire 375-5 dec (M Burgess 98, T Wells 87 no)