da betobet： Sri Lanka’s Test hopefuls may have flopped, but future prospectMichael Vandort impressed with a fine century, as a Sri Lanka Board XImiddle order recovered from the loss of early wickets to score 326against India at the P Saravanamuttu Stadium
da doce： Charlie Austin08-Aug-2001Sri Lanka’s Test hopefuls may have flopped, but future prospectMichael Vandort impressed with a fine century, as a Sri Lanka Board XImiddle order recovered from the loss of early wickets to score 326against India at the P Saravanamuttu Stadium today.India, fielding seven of the Test specialists who have just arrived inColombo, made an excellent start, as veteran fast bowlers JavagalSrinath and Venkatesh Prasad reduced the Board XI to 45 for three inthe first hour.Avishka Gunawardene (0), expected to be in the Test squad and tipped to make the final eleven, was caught behind in Srinath’s first over; Kumar Sangakkara (4), not guaranteed of a place despite good series against South Africa and England, was also mopped up by Srinath and Chamara Silva (11) followed in the tenth over.Vandort, however, fought back with a 152-ball century, the fifth inhis third year of first class cricket, adding 58 with HashanTillakaratne (26) in the morning, 31 with Tillakaratne Dilshan (6)after lunch and 61 with Board XI captain Thilan Samaraweera (76) forthe sixth wicket.The tall 21-year-old left-hander may have only played once for StJoseph College First XI in five years, but he is now on fringes of thenational selection after a productive first class season for ColomboCricket Club and a consistent series against Sri Lanka A.With Tillakaratne Dilshan having gone off the boil in recent times andAravinda de Silva not endearing himself to the selectors, Vandort’sinnings today could even have secured himself a place in the Testsquad to be selected on Thursday.He played positively today and was particularly strong off the frontfoot, especially with the cover drive. Against the left arm spin ofRahul Sanghvi he used his long reach to good effect, repeatedly andcleanly driving straight down the ground.He hit 19 boundaries and 116 runs, before a sharp catch by SadagoppanRamesh in the gully ended his innings and left the Sri Lankan’s on 195for five.The middle order continued to impress, however, as Suresh Perera (27)and Samaraweera added 59 entertaining runs after tea. Dinusha Fernando(24) also chipped in at the end before Rahul Sanghvi picked up thelast two wickets of the innings.Though the Board XI finished with a reasonable score the Indian campwill be happy with the form of opening bowlers Javagal Srinath andVenkatesh Prasad. Srinath extracted steep bounce from the wicket andbeat the bat regularly in the morning. He bowled three spells in alland picked the wickets of three out of the four Sri Lanka batsmen withTest experience, two of whom should be playing next week.Prasad was less spiteful, but still probing and economical. Indeed, onthe evidence of today, he could provide useful support to strikebowlers Javagal Srinath and Zaheer Khan if India play three fastbowlers in Galle.India’s concerns will be left arm spinner Rahul Sanghvi, who provedexpensive and only looked like taking a wicket when the tail-enderstried to flog him to the boundary. Another worry will be the fielding:four chances were missed, two catches by Ramesh, one by Badani in theslips and a stumping chance by Dighe when Vandort had made just 43.
