CricInfo Home
News Home

NEWS FOCUS
Rsa in Pak
NZ in India
Zim in Aus

Domestic
Other Series

Vodafone Trophy: Maddy stakes Test claim

First Class Counties Select XI (276-6) bt Sri Lanka A (251-9) by 25 runs

It should be pure fantasy to suggest, as some have, that one-day performances against tourists already routed so far by Northamptonshire and Durham might realistically have any bearing on international futures.

But in a team chosen by the full England selectors from nine counties not otherwise engaged, Darren Maddy's superb hundred and Ed Giddins's excellent new-ball bowling will hardly have done any harm.

Maddy's fifty came in 87 balls, the hundred 46 balls later and, having opened, he did not fall until the last over when, he skied to mid-on.

His 105-run, fourth-wicket stand with Vikram Solanki, taken for 53 on the midwicket boundary as he sought to keep up the tempo, effectively won the game. Their last 72 together needed just eight overs.

As the rest of the nation basked in sunshine, the Sri Lankans replied in day-long gloom and drizzle. Giddins, bowling an immaculate line, had the one Test cap, Russel Arnold, caught at first slip and captain Naveed Nawaz splendidly taken at second.

From 69 for four, the asking rate was never challenged despite Avishka Gunawardena's 62 from 78 balls and seamer Suresh Perera's three sixes in a late and lusty 75 off 74 balls.