Essex Head Coach and England Lions Assistant Coach Chris Silverwood praised Essex batsman Tom Westley’s start to the Sri Lanka Lions tour.
England Lions were subjected to a long, hot day in the field after a poor morning batting performance on the second day of their warm-up match against a Board President’s XI in Moratuwa.
The Lions squandered a decent overnight platform of 168 for four, with the last six wickets falling for 74.
Westley shone though and went on to make 95 before missing the chance of a maiden Lions century.
His performance was praised by Keaton Jennings, Lions coach Andy Flower and also Silverwood. “It was great to see Tom batting so nicely early in the tour,” said Silverwood. “He did well for the Lions against Afghanistan before Christmas, and this is a great chance for him to build on that.”
Opener Ron Chandraguptha, who had top-scored in the first innings with 48, made 91 second time around for the hosts in front of national selector Sanath Jayasuriya before he was again dismissed by a good ball from Middlesex off-spinner Ollie Rayner.
Toby Roland-Jones had made an early dismissal with the new ball, but the Lions had to sweat for everything after that.
Tom Curran claimed his third wicket of the match in seven tidy overs, and the fourth wicket went to Liam Livingstone, underlining his all-round value as the team’s third spinner.
The Cumbrian had the President’s XI captain Nipun Karananayake smartly caught at short leg by Nick Gubbins, after earlier extending his half century to a new Lions best of 84 – including a second six.
Of the rest of the Lions batting, only Sam Curran hung around for long, making 24 from 39 balls until he was last man out.
