England on course for victory

England took five wickets on the final morning as they pushed for victory in their warm-up match against a Sri Lankan Board XI.

England, with a lead of 134 in the bank courtesy of Alastair Cook's 163 not out, declared before the start of play to give their bowlers another chance to get some overs under their belt.

And they responded by wiping out the top order in quick time to leave the hosts 62 for five at lunch.

The declaration yielded immediate success when James Anderson struck with the third ball of the morning. Anderson was impressive on day one of the match, claiming the first four wickets of the innings and coping well with the heat.

This time he had Ashen Silva, top-scorer with 66 last time out, caught by Ravi Bopara at point. He almost had a second when Dimuth Karunaratne mis-timed a pull and edged just over the slip cordon, while Steven Finn was thick-edged for four by Bhanuka Rajapaksa.

Finn did not have to wait long for a wicket, though, Rajapaksa flashing hard in the eighth over and finding Graeme Swann at second slip.

Spin pair Swann and Monty Panesar started in tandem soon after, both opening their spells with maidens. Panesar was the first to create a chance, taking Karunaratne's edge only to see Anderson put down a difficult one-handed chance at slip.

The seamer is England's first-choice catcher for the slow bowlers but has now grassed three catches in the match.

Karunaratne lifted Swann wide of mid-on for four to take the total past 50 but he beat his man two balls later, bowling him for 31. Finn turned 51 for three into 51 for four when he had new batsman Prasanna Jayawardene caught at second slip with the sixth ball of his second spell.

Sachithra Serasinghe was fifth out just before the break, Swann the bowler and Cook the catcher at short leg.