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Day 1: Essex rookies mount a spirited fightback

Christopher Lyles at Chelmsford

First day of four: Sri Lanka A 364 v Essex

Sri Lanka A batted with great application against an inexperienced Essex attack that stuck to their task well on a placid pitch yesterday.

Test player Russel Arnold, who had failed to register more than 31 in his eight innings on tour, scored 70 and T M Dilshan made the most of being dropped three times, including first ball, to top-score with 86.

And it was quite right that the tourists should have batted in more responsible fashion than their abysmal first-innings performance at Northampton last week. With a new manager and a new captain in charge of the Test team, and with tours to Zimbabwe and Sharjah to follow next month's visit of the Australians, it is an opportune time to stake a claim for higher honours.

Andrew McGarry and Tim Phillips, aged 17 and 18 respectively, showed promise on their first-class debuts. The medium-fast McGarry, who has an upright action and hits the pitch hard, was called upon in the fifth over after the wayward Danny Law had been hit for four boundaries by Avishka Gunawardena in two overs.

The youngster was able to celebrate his maiden first-class wicket when he trapped Gunawardena on the crease with his 13th delivery. And he should have claimed Dilshan with his next ball but for Stephen Peters putting down a straightforward chance at third slip.

Phillips, a slow left-armer who varied his pace intelligently, is another product of the Felsted School conveyor belt and he trapped Arnold on the drive at slip with his 16th ball to break a second-wicket partnership that had added 96 in 23 overs.

Phillips also accounted for Dilshan after Sri Lanka had threatened to run riot and he finished with four for 42 from 17 overs as Essex fought back to bowl out the tourists in the final over.

Day 2: Grayson profits in opening role

Christopher Lyles at Chelmsford

Second day of four: Essex (261-3) trail Sri Lanka A (364) by 103 runs

Success in cricket often depends on the misfortune of others, and Paul Grayson has grasped the opportunity to open the Essex innings with relish.

Cast into that role in early June after Paul Prichard had injured his wrist playing football, he immediately scored a career-best unbeaten 159 against Hampshire, and the Yorkshire exile yesterday added another century from the top of the order when he made an accomplished 125 against the touring Sri Lankans.

Ronnie Irani also made hay on a batsman-friendly pitch to finish within 12 runs of his second hundred of the season, before bad light forced the players off for a fourth and final time with five overs left. The pair, who added 127 for the third wicket, have put Essex in a position of some comfort with two days still to play.

Grayson's ability has never been in question. He twice scored 1,000 runs in a season for Yorkshire before being released at the end of 1995 due to the surfeit of middle-order batsmen in The White Rose county.

He was capped in his first season at Essex in 1996, but suffered along with the rest of his colleagues last year when he scored 509 runs, some of them as an opener, at an average of just 16.

This season is a different story. Although he started tentatively yesterday, being dropped at second slip by Russel Arnold when he had made 19, his innings flourished thereafter and he raced to a 56-ball fifty with some crisp back-foot drives into his favoured cover region.

Progress towards the sixth century of his career was more sedate, taking a further 94 deliveries, but it was a creditable achievement nevertheless, especially given the three weather interruptions that he was forced to endure. He eventually perished to a leaden-footed fence against Suresh Perera, who was the pick of an otherwise toothless attack.

Now that Prichard is fit again, the out-of-form Darren Robinson has proved to be the sacrificial lamb at the top of the innings.

But when his replacement is averaging more than 80 in that berth, he cannot really complain.

Day 3: Show-stealer Gunawardena

Christopher Lyles at Chelmsford

Third day of four: Sri Lanka A (364 & 185-3) lead Essex (442) by 107 runs

Ronnie irani may have compiled a career-best 153 but the innings of the day was played by the Sri Lankan opener Avishka Gunawardena, who struck a scintillating 72 after the tourists had conceded a first-innings lead of 78.

He and Russel Arnold came out all guns blazing, putting on 60 for the first wicket amid a flurry of rasping boundaries before Arnold edged one behind in the seventh over to give left-arm seamer Justin Bishop a maiden first-class wicket.

Gunawardena, on 36 at the time, played more circumspectly thereafter, but still reached his fifty at better than a run a ball, before driving wildly at debutant Andrew McGarry. Barry Hyam took a diving catch in front of first slip to end an innings that included 14 fours, many powerfully struck off the back foot through point, and an astonishing six over the longest boundary at backward point off Danny Law.

Young McGarry, who has represented Essex since under-nine level, again impressed with his medium-fast seam bowling and elicited more response than anyone from a pitch that remained in the batsmen's favour. He demanded respect from the Sri Lankan batsmen, and on the occasions that he did bowl a loose ball, he was quickly back to his mark. The 17-year-old still has some filling out to do, but he looks a promising prospect.

Earlier, Irani had progressed to the highest of his 11 first-class hundreds, eclipsing the unbeaten 127 he made against Somerset at Bath last season. His innings, which spanned 305 balls and included 24 fours, was hardly a thing of rare beauty, but it served an important purpose for his side, who will still feel that they have an outside chance of victory if they can secure early wickets this morning.

Sri Lanka were hampered by the absence of their opening bowler Ravindra Pushpakumara, who will be out for at least a week after suffering strained ligaments in his right knee. He will be hoping for a rapid recovery after missing the last year with a troublesome left knee.