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Tom Westley scored 97 in England Lions first innings to lay the platform for a comprehensive 195 run victory against Sri Lanka A in Kandy.

Tom Curran ended with three for 35 and Sam Curran cleaned up the last three wickets for 21 either side of lunch – including an absolute jaffa that was one of the highlights of the match.

With the other four wickets shared by the Middlesex trio of Ollie Rayner, Tom Helm and Toby Roland-Jones, who also made important batting contributions to build on first-innings half-centuries from Tom Westley and Liam Livingstone, captain Keaton Jennings was able to reflect on a genuine team performance.

“That’s the great thing, everyone has chipped in,” said the Durham opener.

“As a whole team performance it was absolutely brilliant. It’s a good bowling attack to captain, with a lot of variety, and a really good bunch of guys to captain as well.

“Those runs we got lower down the order in the first innings were very important in setting up the game, and with Helmy nearly getting a career best in the second innings as well, they might find themselves opening the batting.”

That was a reference to the area with the most obvious room for improvement, as the Lions lost early wickets in both innings.

“We all know our roles and responsibilities, and as a top order batter you want to score runs,” added Jennings, who top-scored in the second innings with 37 but still included himself in the criticism. “Not everybody can score runs all the time. But you’ve got to make sure you try and take care of that role, show the grit to get through those tough periods and get runs.

“From a bowling point of view as well, there’s a few plans we can come up with now we’ve seen a few of their guys. That’s the exciting thing, the room for improvement in the second game in Dambulla.

“But this was a very good team performance – very enjoyable.”

Tom Curran had already taken one wicket, with the first ball of the innings, when the home team resumed their bid for a distant victory target of 365 on 41 for two, and he added a second victim in his first over of the day, shaping one away from the right-handed Roshen Silva for Ben Foakes to take a low catch.

Helm then took a wicket in his first over for the second time in the match, surprising Charith Asalanka with extra lift for Foakes to claim another catch.

Rayner had already been introduced from the Pavilion End and he gained reward for his accuracy when the Sri Lankan captain Dhananjaya de Silva pushed forward and edged to Livingstone at slip.

Dilruwan Perera gifted Rayner his second wicket of the innings and his fifth of the match, sweeping to Helm at square leg, and Jennings then recalled Tom Curran whose pace was too much for Malinda Pushpakumara.

In the next over Sam angled one across Lahiru Gamage for Rayner to take a sharp catch to his right at second slip, and his next ball would have been too good for far better players than Kasun Rajitha as it swung into the right-hander, then left him off the pitch to clip the off stump.

Asitha Fernando survived the hat-trick ball and proceeded to frustrate the Lions not only for the one over remaining until the scheduled lunch, but for the extra half hour available with nine wickets down– and then for several more overs after that – in the company of the left-handed opener Udara Jayasundera, who had played sensibly throughout.

Finally, after hitting five fours and a six in a new first-class best of 30, Fernando miscued a drive to mid-on where Nick Gubbins made no mistake – ending a last-wicket stand of 54 in 14 overs, and leaving Jayasundera with the consolation of having carried his bat for 64 from 166 balls.

Tom Westley continued his fine form for England Lions top-scoring with 97 against Sri Lanka A at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium.

Although he missed out on a 100 for the second consecutive game, Westley was delighted to be scoring substantial scores.

He said: “It is disappointing when you first get out so close to a century – especially when it’s happened twice in a week. But as Tom Curran said to me when I got back in the dressing room, you’d have taken 97 at the start of the day – and it was a decent contribution to the team getting 300.

“It is frustrating though, because I would have probably played the same shot again. I just picked out the man at leg gully which was a bit unfortunate really.

“Toby was fantastic at the end, and we’ve got them four down now, so we’re in good spirits after day one.

“Playing spin was a key focus of mine when we were asked in our profiling day at Loughborough (ECB Performance Centre) at the end of the season. I really wanted to have confidence in my defence against spin, and I’ve been pleased with how I’ve developed on that front. I had a decent knock against Afghanistan in Abu Dhabi before Christmas, again in the warm-up game here, and now in this game I’ve managed to get another decent score under my belt – and I think a lot of that is my confidence defending against spin.”

On Livingstone? (they put on 136 in the warm-up game, and 126 today) “We’re rooming together at the moment – so I don’t really want to be spending time out in the middle with him as well. He’s nice to bat with because he’s quite an aggressive player, he hits boundaries, and that allows me to keep plodding along.”

England selector Angus Fraser is also in attendance in Sri Lanka keeping an eye on proceedings and Westley has certainly caught the eye of the Middlesex Managing Director of Cricket.

He added: ““Westley batted beautifully. Losing two early wickets he was under a bit of pressure, going out there far earlier than he would have thought. But him and Livingstone manoeuvred the ball around really well, put the bad balls away, took the easy singles that were on offer, and looked in total control.

“It was good to see. Certainly for Liam, he’s not played a lot of first-class cricket yet, so to see him strike the ball as well as he did was good – and the same with Tom, he was unbelievably strong off his legs.”

Tom Westley top-scored for the Lions with 97 – the second time in three innings on the tour the Essex right-hander has fallen just short of a maiden Lions century, after he made 95 in the warm-up game against a Board President’s XI.

He came in after the early loss of Haseeb Hameed and Nick Gubbins had left the Lions on 14 for two – and before lunch Keaton Jennings, the Lions captain who had won the toss, was bowled for 23 trying to reverse sweep the experienced international off-spinner Dilruwan Perera.

But Westley teamed up with Lancashire’s Liam Livingstone in a fourth-wicket stand of 126 in 27 overs.

The Essex man was especially strong off his legs, stroking 14 fours and a six in a graceful 137-ball innings until he fell in unusual fashion, hooking to a deep leg slip where Charith Asalanka took a sharp catch.

Livingstone followed two overs later, edging a ball that turned sharply from the left-arm spinner Malinda Pushpakumara after making 59 from 83 balls – also his second half century of the tour.

But when the Surrey trio of Sam Curran, Tom Curran and Ben Foakes all fell cheaply to Pushpakumara either side of tea, the Lions were in trouble after losing five wickets for 21 in 13 overs.

They were rescued by the Middlesex trio of Rayner, Helm and especially Roland-Jones. After some watchful reconnaissance against Pushpakumara and Perera, Rayner and Roland-Jones had just begun to open up when Rayner was trapped lbw in the first over of leg-spin from Udara Jayasundera.

Toby Roland-Jones led a last-session England Lions fightback as the Middlesex all-rounder belted 82 from 98 balls including three sixes and was helped by dogged support from his county team-mates Ollie Rayner and Tom Helm, as the Lions recovered from 210 for eight to a respectable total of 316 all out.

Roland-Jones then took two wickets in his first over, after Tom Curran had already struck in the first over of Sri Lanka A’s reply – and with Helm maintaining the pattern with a wicket in his first over, the home team will resume tomorrow on 29 for four.