Vandort century holds up India in practice game

Sri Lanka's Test hopefuls may have flopped, but future prospect Michael Vandort impressed with a fine century, as a Sri Lanka Board XI middle order recovered from the loss of early wickets to score 326 against India at P.Saravanamuttu Stadium today.

India, fielding seven of the Test specialists that have just arrived in Colombo, made an excellent start, as veteran fast bowlers Javagal Srinath and Venkatesh Prasad reduced the Board XI to 45 for three in the 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 in his third year of first class cricket, adding 58 with Hashan Tillakaratne (26) in the morning, 31 with Tillakaratne Dilshan (6) after lunch and 61 with Board XI captain Thilan Samaraweera (76) for the sixth wicket

The tall 21-year-old left-hander may have only played once for St Joseph College First XI in five years, but he is now on fringes of the national selection after a productive first class season for Colombo Cricket Club and a consistent series against Sri Lanka A.

With Tillakaratne Dilshan having gone off the boil in recent times and Aravinda de Silva not endearing himself to the selectors then Vandort's innings today could even have secured himself a place in the Test squad to be selected on Thursday.

He played positively today and was particularly strong off the front foot, especially with the cover drive. Against the left arm spin of Rahul Sanghvi he used his long reach to good effect, repeatedly and cleanly driving straight down the ground.

He hit 19 boundaries and 116 runs, before a sharp catch by Sadagoppan Ramesh in the gully ended his innings and left the Sri Lankan's on 195 for 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 the last two wickets of the innings.

Though the Board XI finished with a reasonable score the Indian camp will be happy with the form of opening bowlers Javagal Srinath and Venkatesh Prasad,

Srinath extracted steep bounce from the wicket and beat the bat regularly in the morning. He bowled three spells in all and picked the wickets of three out of the four Sri Lanka batsmen with Test experience, two of whom should be playing next week.

Prasad was less spiteful, but still probing and economical. Indeed, on the evidence of today, he could provide useful support to strike bowlers Javagal Srinath and Zaheer Khan if India play three fast bowlers in Galle.

India's concerns will be left arm spinner Rahul Sanghvi, who proved expensive and only looked like taking a wicket when the tail-enders tried to flog him to the boundary, and their catching: four chances were missed, two catches by Ramesh, one by Badani in the slips and a stumping chance by Dighe when Vandort had made just 43.