After the Sri Lankan bowlers had been exposed on the first two days against Durham at Chester-le-Street, it was the turn of the batsmen to suffer on the third morning as the tourists were bowled out for 167 and forced to follow on.

The one redeeming feature of the innings, just a week before the first Test starts at Lord's, was the batting of Aravinda De Silva. While seven wickets fell in the space of just 24 overs, De Silva appeared composed and comfortable in his 85 ball innings that produced 53 attractive runs.

Things started to go wrong for Sri Lanka as early as the second ball of the day. Resuming on 92 for three, the first wicket went down when Marvan Atapattu was caught at third slip off the bowling of Nicky Hatch.

Hatch and Ian Hunter kept the break on the batsmen – De Silva excepted – and it was Hunter who claimed the next wicket when Hashan Tillekeratne was lbw half-forward for eight.

Thilan Samaraweera clipped Marc Symington to mid-wicket after a stay of 33 balls for six and, although Chaminda Vaas showed aggression with consecutive boundaries off Hatch, wickets began to fall with a worrying regularity for the Sri Lankans.

De Silva's fifty had come up off 81 balls, but Symington had him caught behind and then had Nuwan Zoysa lbw two balls later. With Vaas falling to Hatch in the next over and last man Merenna Amerasinghe unable to bat because of injury, Sri Lanka finished with a first innings deficit of 302 runs.

Second time around, they batted with much more application. Russel Arnold in particular was in flowing form, bringing up his fifty at better than a run a ball with eight boundaries. Atapattu was solid at the other end as the pair went about the job of providing a substantial base for the innings.

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