Date-stamped : 24 Mar95 - 18:37 Tour Match: Sri Lanka v Sussex Hove, 17, 18, 19 August 1991 ====> Day 2, 18 Aug 91 Jayasuriya offers a sound case for place in Test team - John Woodcock HOVE (second day of three; Sri Lankans won toss): Sussex, with nine second-innings wickets in hand, are 103 runs ahead of the Sri Lankans. PRESENTED with an ideal opportunity to play themselves in to form for the Test match, beginning on Thursday at Lord`s, the only Sri Lankans to make the most of it were Jayasuriya and Ata- pattu, who are thought to be vying for the same place in the Test side. Jayasuriya made the first hundred of the tour and Atapattu his own first 50, enabling the Sri Lankans to declare 50 runs behind with a view to bidding for the sponsor`s Tetley Bitter prize today. Together, Jayasuriya and Atapattu doubled the score in 32 overs after the first five wickets had gone for 140 runs. Apart from Kuruppu, leg-before when well forward to North, the main batsmen had all got a start without cashing in. Hathurusingha, who took 136 off Sussex for the Sri Lankan side that toured here a year ago, was run out this time, by Salisbury from cover point. Despite that, Sri Lanka`s running between wickets was keener, on the whole, than Sussex`s fielding. Mahanama was caught at the wicket down the leg side and Til- lekaratne gave the leg spinner, Salisbury, his only wicket when he missed an intended pull. With the captain, Aravinda de Silva, not playing, partly to arrest a damaged shoulder and partly to fit both Jayasuriya and Atapattu into the side, the Sri Lankans were beginning to look a little lost when these two repaid de Silva`s faith. With something not far removed from a slog, Jayasuriya, a left-hander, hit his first ball, from Salisbury, for four, and was always looking for runs. Atapattu, more orthodox, looked full of promise. They can both bowl (Jayasuriya a slow orthodox left arm, Atapattu leg breaks), one is 21 and the other 20, and both must think that if Hove is always like this flat, nicely-paced pitch, a beautiful outfield, a friendly, sizeable crowd and al- most unbroken sunshine it has to be the fairest place in all Eng- land. Jayasuriya`s hundred took him 105 balls and included ten fours and four sixes. The day badly needed a second spinner, both to back up Salis- bury and to break up the endless round of faster stuff from the other end. Once the ball had lost its shine, they were the sort of conditions in which most medium-pacers can bowl their hearts out for little reward. Jones, quicker and beefier than the othrs, surprised Gurusinha with lift and had him caught at the wicket, and North, a sturdy 22-year-old from Chichester, took a couple of wickets. But where was Donelan, who has been taking wickets with his off breaks? It will be a pity, I think, if the Sri Lankans play only one spinner at Lord`s this week, as there is talk of their doing. Just because they play spin so nimbly and well themselves, it does not mean that England do. They are going to be very hard pressed, obviously, to dismiss England twice, but unless the weather changes or the pitch is too thickly grassed, they would have a better chance of doing it with spin well bowled than with seam for the sake of it. The game would almost certainly be more interesting for it too. Source :: The Times ====> Day 3, 19 Aus 91 Sri Lankan batsmen show flair in the chase for prize - John Woodcock HOVE (final day of three): Sussex drew with the Sri Lankans. SPURRED by the prospect of winning Pounds 2,000, the prize of- fered by the sponsors for winning this match, the Sri Lankans and Sussex contested a good finish yesterday. Left to make 275 to win in 54 overs, the Sri Lankans were 255 for eight when stumps were drawn, having shut up shop only a couple of overs earlier. They had shown themselves, as they so often do when given a little encouragement and congenial conditions, to be batsmen of flair. Kuruppu, Mahanama and Tillekeratne all played most engag- ingly, and the odds seemed in favour of a Sri Lankan victory when only 26 more were needed with five wickets standing, 26 balls left and Tillekeratne, yet another of their left-handers, in sparkling form. Twenty minutes later the touring team was grate- ful to see Tillekeratne dropped at silly mid-off off Pigott, and Muralitharan, the last man, spared from coming in to face the last two balls. Sussex had made heavy weather of extending their lead from an overnight 103 to a point where Alan Wells felt able to declare. Greenfield and Smith decided the chance of their making hundreds was too good to miss, Smith particularly providing limited enter- tainment. Of the first 105 runs they added together, Greenfield scored 70, showing himself capable of powerful, well-made strokes. This was, in fact, Greenfield`s third hundred in the ten first-class innings he has played this season and last: the other two were for Sussex against Cambridge. Inevitably, he is finding the championship a different proposition. We were treated to an assortment of spin bowling, all of the orthodox kind, by Anurasiri, Muralidaran and Jayasuriya. They got nothing much past the bat, nor gave anything much away, and as the morning went by it became evident that Sussex were not look- ing for a lunchtime declaration, as they might have been expected to do. In the event they continued until Smith reached his second hundred of the season, 35 minutes into the afternoon. He received 208 balls, 11 more than Greenfield. The Sri Lankans were given a lively start by Kuruppu. He brought the game to life with some splendid strokes in keeping with the pitch, which looked as though it would last for ever, and the occasion, which was pleasantly relaxed. At tea, after 18 overs, the Sri Lankans were 71 for no wicket. Twenty-five minutes afterwards they were 110 for four, North having removed Hathurusinghe, Kuruppu, Gurusinha and Atapattu in 18 balls for seven runs. There was not quite the need for such desperation as the batsmen showed; but that is so much a matter of experience. Then Mahanama and Tillekeratne came and with great spirit added 119 in 20 overs. So in the Test, Sri Lanka will not be short of batsmen with runs under their belt. Wells kept Salisbury going at one end and gave Greenfield`s off breaks an airing at the other. When the last 20 overs began the Sri Lankans needed a 131, and when Pigott and Jones were brought back, still with six wickets standing, the required rate hovered around six an over. Which is where it stayed until, at the fall of the eighth wicket, the chase was abandoned. Source :: The Times Contributed by Gihan (Gihan.N.Wikramanayake@cm.cf.ac.uk)