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Craig McDermott, the former Australia fast bowler, has been appointed Ireland’s bowling coach for the World Twenty20, beginning later this month. He will join the team for the pre-tournament training camp in Colombo ahead of the tournament in Sri Lanka.McDermott, who earlier this year quit as Australia’s bowling coach for personal reasons, called the assignment an “exciting opportunity” that would help his coaching career. His most recent assignment was with the Australia team at the Under-19 World Cup held last month.”I am looking forward to working with Phil [Simmons] and his team at the World T20 in Sri Lanka,” McDermott said. “They have a well balance squad and I am looking forward to getting stuck into preparing them for the World T20 in our training camp in Colombo.”The announcement was made by Ireland Cricket chief executive, Warren Deutrom, during a farewell function before the team’s departure for Sri Lanka. “Coach Phil Simmons and Cricket Ireland Performance director Richard Holdsworth were keen on the appointment of Craig McDermott and since he was available, we have managed to secure his services for a limited time, that is for the World T20 and the build up before that,” Deutrom told ESPNcricinfo.”The funding for the appointment emanated from the ICC high performance program, which has provided the two associates (Ireland and Afghanistan) playing in the World T20s with financial support,” he said.Holdsworth said he was delighted to have brought McDermott on board Ireland’s coaching set-up. “He is vastly experienced both as a top class player and more recently specialist bowling coach,” Holdsworth said. “Having recently been bowling coach to the Australian team, his insights into their players will help the team prepare for our match against them on September 19.”

Ajantha Mendis’ fitness remains a concern for Sri Lanka as they prepare to take on New Zealand in a series of Tests, ODIs and a one-off T20 international starting October 30. “Ajantha is still recovering from a side strain which he suffered during the World T20. That is our only concern right now,” Sri Lanka’s team manager Charith Senanayake said on Saturday.Mendis picked up the injury during Sri Lanka’s opening World T20 game against Zimbabwe on September 18 but only missed the rain-affected group match against South Africa. He finished as the top wicket-taker in the competition with 15 wickets at an average of 9.80. “Ajantha played these matches taking painkillers, he has still not recovered 100% from the injury. He is still under treatment,” Senanayake said. “We have made practice optional for the World T20 players, but the rest of the squad is at practice. We will regroup on October 23.”Sri Lanka’s selectors will pick the squads for the series against New Zealand next week. The chairman of the selection panel Ashantha de Mel said he would be speaking to captain Mahela Jayawardene and coach Graham Ford through tele-conference before the selection committee sits down to name the three squads. Jayawardene is currently in South Africa leading Delhi Daredevils in the Champions League while Ford, a South African, has returned home for a short break after the World T20.Apart from Jayawardene, several other Sri Lankan players are involved with the Champions League. Among them are Lasith Malinga and Thisara Perera (for Mumbai Indians), Nuwan Kulasekara (for Chennai Super Kings) and the Uva Next team which has T20 cricketer Dilshan Munaweera and ODI players including Dilhara Fernando, Sachitra Senanayake and Seekkuge Prasanna.Jayawardene stepped down as Sri Lanka’s T20 captain after the World T20. Angelo Mathews is expected to lead Sri Lanka in the one-off T20 International against New Zealand in Pallekele on October 30.”We are looking at resting some of the senior players and fielding a young team for the T20 game. The seniors will be back for the ODIs and Tests,” De Mel said.

Michael Clarke has not yet considered the possibility of cutting down Shane Watson’s bowling workload when he returns to the Test side. Watson will miss the first Test against South Africa, starting at the Gabba on Friday, after injuring his calf while bowling for New South Wales in a Sheffield Shield match on Saturday, and it is far from the first time Watson has hurt himself while bowling.He missed all of Australia’s home Tests last summer after suffering a hamstring injury while bowling in the Johannesburg Test in November – a calf complaint also arose during the summer – and often struggled with his dual batting and bowling roles earlier in his career. Watson, 31, has always declared himself an allrounder and insisted that he wants to keep bowling. Australia will need to consider how best to use him over the coming years.They could look to the example of Steve Waugh, who began his career as an allrounder and often bowled more than 20 overs in a Test innings, but once he reached his thirties his body struggled to handle the workload and he scaled back his bowling significantly. Notably, around the time Waugh cut back on his bowling his Test batting average was 43; by the end of his career it had risen to 51.”We’ll worry about that if we have to. Shane sees himself as an allrounder. I haven’t heard any different at this stage,” Clarke said in Brisbane ahead of the first Test. “I’m pretty sure he wants to come back as an allrounder and we’ve selected him through his career as an allrounder.”There have been games where he hasn’t been selected because he hasn’t been able to bowl. If he’s fit to do both, then he’ll do both. If he’s not, the selectors will sit down and work out if we’re going to select him just as a batsman.”For the time being, Australia are not willing to choose Watson for his batting alone. Although Watson consistently makes starts and has passed 50 on 20 occasions in Test cricket, only twice has he gone on to turn those into hundreds. Australia’s coach, Mickey Arthur, is also keen for Watson to return as an allrounder, rather than confining himself to a batting role.”Shane’s got a massive amount to offer in two disciplines,” Arthur said on on Monday. “It’s a blow not to have him because he’s two cricketers in one. Shane’s still got a long career ahead of him, batting and bowling.”Whether that career includes this series against South Africa remains to be seen, although he has more than two weeks to prove his fitness before the second Test in Adelaide. Australia called Rob Quiney in for this Test and Arthur said the selection panel had been keen to replace Watson with the man they considered the next best batsman, rather than another allrounder such as Andrew McDonald.”There was [consideration of another allrounder], we had a look at all the scenarios,” Arthur said. “As a panel we were very keen on picking what we thought was our best top-six batters. I think that’s really important, especially against a good bowling attack, we wanted to pick our best top six. Then we look down the line at what our best four bowlers are to get us 20 wickets. We’ve gone down the old fashioned route of picking six batters, four bowlers and a keeper.”That balance could present some on-field challenges for Clarke, who might need to rely on his part-timers more heavily than he would have liked. It was notable that at training on Tuesday, Quiney and Michael Hussey were both sending down medium-pacers in the nets. Quiney’s outswingers have earned him three first-class wickets – he took 2 for 22 the first time he bowled in a first-class match – and Clarke will consider using him if required at the Gabba.”We’ve seen in the past that I’ve got some overs out of Michael Hussey. Rob Quiney will be no different,” Clarke said. “And if there’s a bit of spin, I can bowl as well. We’ve still got the options there. Whether you’ve got an allrounder in your team or not, you always rely on your main four bowlers and then you use your part-timers as you see fit. Hopefully our frontline bowlers can do the job. But if there’s a role for a part-timer to play, they’ll certainly get that opportunity.”

Thirty two wickets in the series alone was not enough for HarbhajanSingh. With eight wickets down, the tension mounting and Australiadesperately trying to knock off the last two wickets, Harbhajan Singhsliced a ball past point and won for India the Pepsi Series by twomatches to one on Thursday. The Border-Gavaskar Trophy is now in thesafe possession of Sourav Ganguly’s Indian team as a result of thepulsating finish to the third and final Test.If Harbhajan Singh hitting the winning runs saw that poetic justicewas served, Sameer Dighe with the steely look of a man possessed inhis eyes, played an innings that defied the Aussies. The last sessionwas so fraught with tension, the air at the ground could have been cutwith a bread knife. The religious prayed, the nervous smoked, scribestyped furiously as the players slugged it out in the middle. Therecould have been no better advertisement for Test cricket than the gamethat just concluded at the MA Chidambaram Stadium at Chepauk. SteveWaugh’s Australians lost, but the look on the captain’s face at theend of the day said it all. It was a battle to the death, one team hadto lose and in this case it was the touring side.The day began however, with the Australians at 241/7 and looking toadd runs. The man they turned to, Steven Rodger Waugh was back in thecool confines of the pavilion. Beaten by the turn and bounce of aHarbhajan Singh offspinner, the Australian captain edged the ball ontopad and to forward short leg. At 246/8 the Indians looked to close infor the kill. Steve Waugh’s 47 gave Australia a glimmer of hope, butproved to be a little short at the end of the day. Australia managed264, a lead of 155.Harbhajan Singh with 8/84 in the second innings ended with matchfigures of 15/217 set up the platform for India’s victory charge.And what a charge it was. India began their effort to chase 155 in asmooth manner. Sadagoppan Ramesh timed the ball sweetly through theoffside even as Das played second fiddle. This opening pair complementeach other ideally. While Ramesh was fire and brimstone, Das was calmat one end. Glenn McGrath and Jason Gillespie steamed in, doing theirbest to dislodge the opening partnership. Bowling a good line andlength, the Aussie fast bowling pair managed to keep things quiet andDas committed a blunder.Attempting to hook a rising delivery from McGrath when he was 9, Daswas a touch late on the ball. Even as the ball ballooned into the airfor McGrath to catch himself, Das (35m, 17b, 2×4) walked back to thepavilion. VVS Laxman joined Ramesh out in the middle and the pair tookIndia through to lunch without further damage.Soon after lunch, the run of play began to fluctuate. While Laxmanbatted with aplomb, driving, cutting and pulling well, a spate ofwickets falling cheaply at the other end set back India. A needlessmix up between Laxman and Ramesh saw the Tamil Nadu southpaw strandedmidpitch. Ramesh made 25. Sachin Tendulkar played a couple of crackingshots against Warne, first pulling and then cutting him to the fenceoff consecutive balls. When Tendulkar got comfortable against thespinners, Waugh brought Jason Gillespie into the attack. Bowling withintensity, Gillespie let rip a menacing delivery from around thewicket. Before Tendulkar could sway out of the way, the ball flew offthe glove to Mark Waugh at slip. Much more was expected of Tendulkarthan his eventual 17.Sourav Ganguly needed to play a sensible knock, batting around Laxman.Instead, the Indian captain slashed hard at Gillespie and was given areprieve when the ball flew through the slip cordon. Off the nextball, Ganguly tried that again and the result was different. MarkWaugh pouched the catch and Ganguly was gone. Rahul Dravid, coming inwith the score on 117/4 departed just five runs later, trying to driveMiller through the on side. The resultant leading edge was well caughtby a diving Steve Waugh at mid off.Then came the innings that made the difference between victory anddefeat. Sameer Dighe, making his Test debut silenced all his criticsby wielding the willow with maturity. Playing with a dead straight batDighe kept out both Gillespie and McGrath. When there was a bit ofwidth, Dighe was up for the shot, cutting hard, often even slashingthe ball to the fence. With VVS Laxman (66 runs, 136 mins, 82 balls,12 fours) being brilliantly caught by Mark Waugh off Miller with thescore on 135, the burden of India’s expectations fell on Dighe’sshoulders.Undaunted even by the loss of Sairaj Bahutule and Zaheer Khan, Digheremained unbeaten on 22 as India scored the requisite runs. A veryrelieved Dighe made a telling comment a bit after the game. Tendulkaronce told Dighe that playing Test cricket was not simply about talentor ability. It was heart and the courage to fight that shaped successsaid Tendulkar.Today, Dighe did Tendulkar proud, showing precisely those qualities inabundance.

Two former West Indies cricket greats, Sir Garry Sobers and CliveLloyd, are hoping Courtney Walsh will not be lost to West Indiescricket.Lloyd, who was West Indies captain when Walsh made his entry into Testcricket against as a frail second-change bowler at Perth, Australia,in 1984 has hailed Walsh as a true champion.”I don’t think you’ll find another Courtney Walsh around and if I wasa young fast bowlers, I’d want to emulate him,” Lloyd said.”The West Indies Cricket Board and the Jamaica Cricket Board would dowell to use his experience.”Sir Garry suggested that the 38-year-old Walsh could be used as abowling coach to guide the crop of fast bowlers on the horizon.”A man, who has been around for so long, doing so well, must know whathe did to get such great success. There is nothing wrong with him asbowling coach – as long as he has a coaching certificate.”Walsh bowed out of international cricket in style when West Indiescompleted a 130-run triumph over South Africa in the fifth Test atSabina Park on Monday.Sir Garry said of Walsh’s career: “It’s a very great achievement. Hewas fantastic for the West Indies. I would like to congratulate him onall the achievements and wish him all the best in his new endeavours.””The young crop of fast bowlers can take from him his dedication toWest Indies and his ability to be always there, trying and giving 100per cent in difficult conditions.”In a 17-year career, Walsh captured 519 wickets from 132 Tests -including a best of seven for 37 after he moved to the top of the alltime list of bowlers a month ago – fittingly in his native Jamaica.”He has had a glorious career, he is a great cricketer and a greatperson,” Lloyd remarked.”He lasted much longer than most, he has kept himself fit and enduredmore than most fast bowlers. He is a great ambassador for the sport.”Though Walsh has officially retired from Test cricket, he confirmedthat he has been asked by West Indies captain Carl Hooper to makehimself available for the tour of Zimbabwe, starting June 17.Jack Russell, the former England wicket-keeper, with whom Walsh formeda friendship during his 14 years at Gloucestershire, described him”the greatest fast bowler Gloucestershire have ever had”.Many of Russell’s over 1 000 catches behind the stumps in first-classcricket, he owes to Walsh.”He was committed to the county through and through and I never sawhim not try his heart out,” Russell said.

Was it tough? Was it competitive?Yes, the recently concluded Cable & Wireless Test series between theWest Indies and South Africa certainly was.Nobody should forget how hard the first and second Tests were inGuyana and Trinidad, and the final-day embarrassment for the home sidein Barbados was not indicative of the competition for the precedingfour-and-a-half days.It is difficult to talk of the positives for the home side in defeatwithout sounding condescending, so I will limit myself to facts. ShaunPollock and the other senior players in the South African team haveseldom, if ever, played in harder Test matches than they did in thefirst four of this series.Australia are rightly regarded as the best team in the world becauseof their head-to-head record against South Africa, but Shaun Pollock’scurrent team are the more consistent, home and away. Australia’s lastthree tours to Sri Lanka, West Indies and India have produced a loss,a draw and a loss. South Africa’s tours to the same countries haveproduced a draw and two wins. South Africa are the hardest team tobeat.Never have three successive Tests gone to the end of the fifth day forthem, let alone five. There were times, notably in Guyana andTrinidad, when the match and series could have swung decisively awayfrom the favourites (South Africa) and, but for several obviousdeficiencies, they would have done. More of that later.It is not only my right as a visitor but my duty to step aside fromthe debate surrounding Carl Hooper’s suitability as captain. May Isimply say he was very, very good until that rotten decision inBarbados to give Pollock a single from the moment he was joined byAllan Donald for the ninth wicket.Fortunately, I said it on radio immediately, so I can say it againnow. It was negative and defeatist. Although I predicted a 50-standbefore they had scored a run, I did not expect them to add 132. Howcan you allow a man as talented as Pollock and a tail-ender asnotoriously stubborn as Donald to play themselves in?Otherwise Hooper had an outstanding series. His body languagebrilliantly camouflaged the desperate moments and when communicatingwith his bowlers and senior lieutenants he clearly had something tosay, other than Come on boys, keep going.I don’t know how the Windies management structure works, but Hooper’sresearch and homework looked excellent so I suspect that Roger Harper(coach) and others should be applauded including my friend, Garfield(Smith), the computer analyst.Hooper’s error in Barbados was irrelevant compared to the decision toplay Marlon Samuels at No.3. Over a century of Test cricket historyprovides so much to learn from, yet we ignore it. I differ from thosethat say Brian Lara should have batted at first-drop. If Dwight Yorketruly believes he will be most effective for Trinidad and Tobago atleft back, then play him there – as long as he is doing well for theteam. Don’t allow your greatest players to be distracted.But to play two 20-year-olds in the top five was a poor gamble.Samuels was cramped, suffocated and intimidated despite his greatestdetermination not to be. With the unpleasant possibility of hindsightbeing my best ally, remember how he looked and played at No.5 atSabina Park.Ramnaresh Sarwan and Samuels are terrific cricketers and they willboth play 50-plus Tests for the West Indies – if they are handled withcare. Need I remind Caribbean supporters that Jacques Kallis startedhis Test career as a non-bowling number seven who averaged 7.5 in hisfirst ten Tests. If players are good enough, give them enough time toprove it.Pollock, like Hooper, enjoyed a good series as captain but an evenbetter one as a player. A second century batting at number nine makeshim unique in the game but his patience as a bowler was outstanding.Maybe less so as a leader, but then he has made plans for his deputiesto hold at least one rein while he is in the heat of battle. A strikebowler needs to let the steam off.Four of the five performers of the series are straightforward CourtneyWalsh, Ridley Jacobs, Daryll Cullinan and Pollock. Brian Lara’s talentand historical record suggest he underperformed, as did Hooper.Dinanath Ramnarine’s lack of patience and Mervyn Dillon’s lapses inconcentration, at least one ball an over, cost them excellent series.Kallis, on the other hand, demonstrated what extraordinary talent hehas. Three sour umpiring decisions spoiled his batting record yet hetook 20 wickets and bore the new-ball burden when Donald was injured.On the subject of Walsh, would it not be fair to leave him alone now?He finished his career on a tremendous high, taking wickets throughoutthe series and winning on his home ground. But he may be tired ofbatsmen taking 30 quick singles to him during a Test and only he knowshow hard it is to get up in the morning and start all over again. Forgoodness sake, respect his decision. Only he knows when the time isright.The holes in the West Indies team are threefold: an adaptable openerable to consolidate and accelerate, not just one or the other; adependable fast bowler (or two, now) and most crucially of all, amedium-pace or fast-bowling allrounder. Before arriving on my firstCaribbean tour, I was under the impression that cricket was dying inthis region. I will leave much the wiser. Cricket is more widely alive(here) than in South Africa; truly.Penultimately, as I am not being paid for this article and cannot beaccused of bias, let me say Caribbean cricket is fortunate to haveCable & Wireless as its major sponsor. They are dedicated and longterm. Seldom do the visiting media enjoy the level of professionalservice and hospitality we have encountered here.Finally, to the people of the five countries we have visited so far,may I say it has been my most enjoyable tour (out of 26). White SouthAfricans tend to attract a great deal of attention when visitingpredominantly non-white countries (like our own!) but your curiosityhas been almost exclusively friendly and my memories will be amongstmy greatest.

Mal Loye’s first County Championship century for two years killed off Surrey’s hopes of forcing a win in their high-scoring Division One game against Northamptonshire at Wantage Road.Loye hit three sixes and 21 fours in an unbeaten 167 off 211 balls, steering the home side to safety on 304-1 after the champions had ground on to reach 607 all out for a first-innings lead of 131.Northants went in again just before lunch, and an early wicket or two could have made it an interesting afternoon. But Loye and Mike Hussey (67) did what they had to do, compiling an opening stand of 189 in 38 overs – a new county record against Surrey.Hussey fell to Mark Butcher’s off-spin, edging to Adam Hollioake at slip, before Loye and Jeff Cook (52 not out) played out time against a nine-man Surrey attack.Resuming on 547-8, the visitors added 60 more runs before Tony Penberthy tidied up with the wickets of Martin Bicknell (56) and Ian Salisbury (33) in successive overs.Bicknell and Salisbury had carried their ninth-wicket partnership to 84 until Penberthy flattened Bicknell’s off-stump, and then had Salisbury held by Loye at mid-off. Tony Penberthy eventually dismissed them both to return commendably tidy figures of 4-66 from 20.5 overs. Off-spinner Jason Brown fared less well. He conceded 172 runs in the innings – a figure exceeded only five times in Northants’ history.Loye then carried the attack to Surrey and raced to a hundred – his first since the game against Lancashire at Old Trafford in 1999 – to ensure a draw. From there, the match drifted to its inevitable conclusion with Alec Stewart bowling the final over.

Trinidad & Tobago re-asserted their supremacy at the junior levels by lifting the West Indies Under-15 title for the third time in succession, beating Barbados by 31 runs in the penultimate round of the tournament on Wednesday.They are scheduled to play another match against Leeward Islands in their final round, but Trinidad & Tobago ensured that game would only be of academic interest. By bowling Barbados out for only 140, the hosts successfully defended their total of 171 and remained unbeaten after four rounds of matches.The home team did not display any scintillating batting, but there were enough minor contributions to take the team to a defendable score. For Barbados, Simone Steele’s 4-17 were the best figures of the match.When the visitors batted, Orman Phillips made 33, but the rest of the batting crumbled against some fine spin bowling. Left-arm spinner Kavesh Kantasingh picked 5-18, and off-spinner Ansil Bhagan took 4-15, the two destroying the Barbados batting line-up in the process.

Four days of beautiful sunshine, the trees in full spring blossom, a good crowd and two First Division sides doing battle at the start of the Frizzell County Championship. Everything you could wish for, except one thing – a decent wicket.1,411 runs may seem like fun, and for the statisticians it was, but not many of the bowlers of both sides will be singing the praises of a match that ended in stalemate.

The fourth day saw John Crawley break a number of Hampshire records – Highest score by a Hampshire batsman on debut, best individual innings since the war, his sixth double century. For Hampshire their total of 671 for 8 (all out) two players were injured, left them tantalisingly close to breaking their own team record of 672-7dec against Somerset at Taunton in 1899. Kent’s first innings score was also their highest ever against Hampshire. So, yes the statistical anoraks amongst us may have been happy, but the end result left the supporters unfulfilled.Crawley’s 272 was a feat of concentration taking over 9 and half hours, but it may have given him a millstone when he comes out to bat at the Rosebowl later this week. “How do you follow that?”When Kent batted second time around, they found young Chris Tremlett a handful with the new ball, so the gentle pace of Will Kendall would have come as some relief. Hampshire had three substitute fielders on with father and son Jimmy and Stephen Cook, along with the more regular Mascarenhas who took two catches.Adrian Aymes will be seeing a specialist about his knee problem, Shaun Udal received a nasty crack on the thumb, but although very sore, x-rays revealed no break; Alex Morris did not field as a precaution against aggravating his sore back

Sri Lanka’s cricketers put a controversial team selection behind them to smash the Glamorgan bowling to the tune of 337 for seven on the opening day of their four-day tour at Sophia Gardens here today.Two batsmen who have been short of runs on the tour, Kumar Sangakkara and Hashan Tillakaratne, made the most of bright and sunny conditions when Glamorgan asked them to bat first on what turned out to be a good flat track.The pair put on 175 for the third wicket off 307 balls. Tillakaratne’s share in the stand was only 60, as Sangakkara found his touch to reveal his full repertoire of strokes. His flashing blade struck 18 fours and two sixes in 194 minutes of majestic batting. He was out in the penultimate over before tea after facing 152 balls, edging a catch behind the wicket to 20-year-old Mark Wallace off Darren Thomas for 113.Tillakaratne, in contrast, accumulated runs rather sedately in his characteristic style. But with the departure of Sangakkara and the quick dismissals of both Tilan Samaraweera and Upul Chandana, he tried to accelerate towards his century and was out for 81, providing Wallace with his fourth catch and Wharf with his fourth wicket of the innings. Tillekeratne had batted for 253 minutes and faced 204 balls, hitting nine fours.In contrast to the first session, which produced a stunning 170 runs, the second saw just 114. The final session was understandably slow, with the best blocker in the side at the wicket. With only five frontline batsmen and a long tail, understandably the majority of the runs came from the top four. The tail was exposed after Tillakaratne’s dismissal and Sri Lanka lost five wickets for 37 runs.Having taken only three wickets by tea when Sri Lanka were 284, the county bowlers hit back in the final session to capture four more for the addition of only 53 runs. Samaraweera and Chandana both missed out when they were dismissed for seven and one respectively. Wharf, returning for a fresh spell after tea, had Samaraweera caught by Adrian Dale with the score on 299, and seven runs later Chandana provided England discard, off-spinner Robert Croft, with his first wicket when he was caught behind by Wallace.Earlier in the day, the cricket team management ran into some trouble over the composition of the team for this game when they included two players from outside the tour party. Sajeeva de Silva, a former Sri Lanka left-arm fast bowler and Pasan Wanasinghe, an all-rounder who toured Kenya with Sri Lanka A, were drafted in from the Lancashire leagues as cover for the four fast bowlers who were rested from this match.With Ishara Amerasinghe going home suffering from a stress fracture in his back, the tourists were down to just one fit bowler, Eric Upashantha. With Dilhara Fernando playing his first competitive match for over a month, the tour management did not want to take a chance, in case he broke down.Sri Lanka rested seven players from the Lord’s Test – batsmen Marvan Atapattu, Mahela Jayawardene and Aravinda de Silva and fast bowlers Chaminda Vaas, Nuwan Zoysa, Charitha Buddhika and Ruchira Perera. With Muttiah Muralitharan still recuperating from his arm injury, the tourists were struggling to put together a playing eleven. Thus the call for two players from outside.However this did not meet favourably with the authorities in Colombo, who queried the selection, and team manager Chandra Schaffter was asked to explain.Schaffter said: “We took this decision in the best interests of the team. We had to rest the four fast bowlers after their marathon stint at Lord’s, which left us short of fast bowlers for this game.”Skipper Sanath Jayasuriya, declaring himself recovered from a thumb injury, set the tone for a run feast by the Sri Lankan batsmen when they ran up the thumping score of 170 for two wickets off just 35 overs by lunch.Jayasuriya and Russell Arnold made short work of the county bowling, posting an opening stand of 97 off only 95 balls. Jayasuriya raced to his half century off just 44 balls, hitting four sixes and six fours, before falling to a catch behind the wicket to Wallace for 57.Arnold also struck some lightning boundaries, eight in all, but missed out on a half century by four runs when he shuffled across to be trapped lbw by Alexander Wharf, the six foot, five inches tall fast bowler, who also took Jayasuriya’s wicket.