Cricket: England take control

MONTY Panesar and James Anderson shared the wickets in the absence of the injured Stuart Broad as England took control of their warm-up match against a Sri Lanka Board XI in Colombo.

The day started badly for the tourists, with Broad withdrawing from the match after tripping on a boundary rope and spraining his left ankle, although the problem is not thought to be serious.

Broad’s regular new-ball partner Anderson was first to impress at the Premadasa Stadium, taking the opening four wickets, only for Panesar to steal the limelight with five of the next six as the hosts were 169 all out.

Anderson got England off to a perfect start, claiming the wickets of Dimuth Karunaratne and Bhanuka Rajapaksa.

With 64 for two on the board at lunch, Anderson struck for the third time in the first over back when Roshen Silva inside-edged the ball on to his stumps and, in the next over, he trapped captain Prasanna Jayawardene lbw.

Panesar got in on the act by dismissing Sachithra Serasinghe and then Dilruwan Perera before Steven Finn combined with Matt Prior to end Ashen Silva’s defiant stay for 66.

The Board XI lost their eighth wicket when Kanishka Alvitigala was bowled by Panesar and his day got better when he added the wickets of Malinga Bandara and Nilanka Premaratne.

England only faced seven balls before bad light arrived, Andrew Strauss scoring all of his side’s six runs.