Sri Lanka unconvincing while scoring 299

Sri Lanka delivered an unconvincing batting performance to be dismissed for 299 by the end of the second day of their three-day tour match against a West Indies Cricket Board President's XI at the Arnos Vale grounds.

Resuming at their overnight total of 46 for 1, all the Sri Lankan top-order batsmen got good starts but failed to convert them into big scores.

The best was Marvan Atapattu, the vice-captain, who made 59 from 156 balls, with three fours. Kumar Sangakkara scored 41 in off 81 balls (five fours) and Hashan Tillakaratne, the captain, weighed in with 40 from 133 balls (two fours).

Tillakaratne Dilshan and Thilan Samaraweera made 20 and 25 respectively. The Sri Lankan batting was boosted by the lower order which contributed 104 runs for the last four wickets, after they had been reduced to 195 for 6 at one stage.

The main lower-order contributors were Kaushal Lokuarachchi, who scored 21 off 52 balls before being run out, and Thilan Thushara who entertained the sparse Sunday crowd with an exhibition of clean hitting that saw him rattle up an unbeaten 34 off 37 balls.

He smote two massive sixes, one each off David Bernard and Narsingh Deonarine, which cleared the stadium, and three fours. He also benefited from an overthrow, which got him five runs when he had yet to open his account.

Tillakaratne dropped himself from his usual batting position of number five to number seven to give himself time to recover from a head injury. Ajith Jayasekera, the manager, said that he was hit on the left side of his forehead by a ball at fielding practice before the start of the second day's play. He was treated with ice, and took rest in the dressing room before coming out to bat at the fall of the fifth wicket.

The obdurate Tillakaratne showed no sign of the injury as he offered a broad bat to the President's XI's bowlers and took his time adjusting himself to the conditions, this being his first game in the Caribbean after arriving here on Friday evening. During his knock, he was dropped on 26 by Ryan Hinds at cover off Dave Mohammed, and endured a painful blow on his left toe as he tried to keep out a yorker from Daren Powell with the second new ball. He was eventually out edging a catch to third slip, when he attempted an ambitious drive.

Lokuarachchi's promising innings was cut short by a run out when Bernard threw down the stumps with a direct throw from mid-on as Tillakaratne called him for a second run. The seventh-wicket partnership produced 52 runs.

Atapattu and Sangakkara batted freely in the morning, extending their second-wicket partnership to 91 before Sangakkara holed out to deep square-leg on the sweep.

The Board President's XI hit back in the final hour before lunch to capture three Sri Lanka wickets for 30 runs, with 18-year-old Jamaican pace bowler Jerome Taylor doing the damage in a spell of two wickets for seven runs in five overs.

Taylor, who made his one-day international debut against Sri Lanka on this ground on Wednesday, knocked back Atapattu's off stump with a yorker and then went on to trap Mahela Jayawardene lbw for 11, to go to lunch with figures of two for 22 off 10 overs.

Atapattu completed his half-century off 145 balls by hitting left-arm spinner Mohammed for two fours in successive overs before his dismissal. Jayawardene was somewhat unlucky to be given out, as the ball appeared to be going down the leg-side. Umpire Gary White gave the decision, and then turned down a confident lbw shout against Samaraweera in the same over when the batsman offered no shot to a ball that pitched in line with the stumps. Taylor was taken out of the attack after the lunch break, giving the impression that that he was being kept aside with a view to being played in the Tests.

The dismissal of Jayewardene brought together the two batsmen vying for the number six spot, Dilshan and Samaraweera. But neither did anything to push their chances.

Dilshan went edging a catch behind the wicket off Powell, and Samaraweera failed to keep down a ball from Mohammad, the left-arm spinner, which he played off his legs to be caught at midwicket by Daren Ganga. Sri Lanka's final total of 299 was worth much more because of the slow outfield which deprived the batsmen of many boundaries.