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SLCB President's XI v England XI, Colombo, 3rd day

England secure warm-up win

Andrew Miller in Colombo

November 27, 2007

England XI 134 and 246 for 5 (Pietersen 59, Cook 58) beat Sri Lanka Board President's XI 298 for 9 dec and 81 (Hoggard 5-25) by five wickets
Scorecard

Kevin Pietersen made his first contribution of the tour as England notched a timely win ahead of the first Test © Getty Images

Kevin Pietersen produced his first half-century of the tour and Alastair Cook continued his recent good form, as England wrapped up a morale-boosting victory over the Sri Lanka Board President's XI at Colombo. The pair combined in a third-wicket stand of 55, making 59 and 58 respectively, before Owais Shah and Matt Prior sealed the victory with a flurry of boundaries shortly after tea.

After their first-innings aberration, in which they lost three top-order wickets in six overs, England's batsmen seemed keen to make amends. Michael Vaughan, who fell for a duck first time around, made a brisk and stylish start, cracking four fours in his 32-ball 28, as England added 50 for the first wicket in only ten overs.

But Vaughan then suffered a lapse in concentration when the part-time medium-pacer Jehan Mubarak entered the attack - he steered his first delivery to Tillakaratne Dilshan in the gully. Ian Bell followed soon afterwards, completing a poor match by scooping Dilshan to deep mid-on for 6, and at 74 for 2 England were in danger of squandering a good start.

Cook, however, remained composed and was joined in the middle by Pietersen, who was unbeaten on 10 from 22 balls at lunch. After the interval, he began to find his timing and moments after Cook had brought up his half-century from 96 balls, Pietersen went down on one knee to reverse-sweep Dilshan for six.

Cook fell lbw to Mubarak as he missed a sweep for the second time in the match, and Pietersen didn't last much longer. He reached for a cut off Chamara Kapugedera and snicked a thin under-edge through to the keeper. That left Bopara and Shah in tandem, and each man produced some polished strokeplay - including a straight six for Bopara off Mubarak - as they attempted to force their way into the Test reckoning.

Bopara's stay ended shortly after the break as he popped up a return catch to give Mubarak his third wicket of the innings, but Prior arrived in a mood to complete a swift finish. He rattled off five fours in a 31-ball stay, and sealed the win with two in two balls - a drive through the covers and a sweep through midwicket, again off Mubarak.

Earlier James Anderson had allayed fears about his fitness by picking up the final wicket of the Sri Lankan innings with his sixth ball of the morning, to leave England chasing a total of 246. In an encouraging sign of his fitness, the ball that did the damage was a sharp bouncer to the No. 9 Chanaka Welagedera.

Steve Harmison also had good news to report, after a scan on his injured back revealed no obvious problem. All the same, his prospects of featuring in next week's first Test at Kandy are slim after bowling just 16.3 overs in the two warm-up games.

Andrew Miller is UK editor of Cricinfo

© Cricinfo