Caddick stars in tame England draw

Andrew Caddick claimed the honours as England's bowlers reminded themselves that patience and perseverance are key virtues on the sub-continent.

Caddick, wicketless but splendidly economical for 12 overs, finished with three for 33 before the first game of the Sri Lanka tour ended here, inevitably enough, in a tame draw.

The Somerset seamer deserved his hard earned rewards on a typically unresponsive pitch - as did the other main members of Nasser Hussain's attack against a side called 'Colts' but containing several classy performers in their mid-20s.

Darren Gough struck twice with the new ball, plucking out middle stump on both occasions, Craig White - now shaven headed following a visit to Yorkshire team-mate turned part-time barber Matthew Hoggard - gained one success and Robert Croft recovered from a nervous start to pick up two victims.

Caddick, Gough and White all learned the value of plugging away relentlessly while in Pakistan before Christmas.

Spinner Croft, back in England colours after being jettisoned last summer, understandably took longer to shake off the rust. But he, too, began to impress as the home side - 148 for two at one stage - were pegged back to 232 for eight declared.

That left Hussain's men with a first inning lead of 20 plus another half an hour's batting.

Paul Nixon, promoted to No 3, fell to the last ball of the contest, having replaced Mike Atherton in the middle, to leave England 24 for two.

Atherton, dismissed for 12 yesterday by a cracking delivery from Dinusha Fernando that left him late, made only six second time around before losing his off stump to the same man.

On this occasion he appeared to play down the wrong line while barely half forward. But no-one these days worries too much about Atherton's scores outside of the Test arena. England's senior opener started moderately in Pakistan, then averaged nearly 70 when the real action began.

Here, it was hard for either side to get too excited about a two-day game destined to end as a draw even before the first ball went down.

But England wanted to sample match conditions, rather than spend more time in the nets, ahead of the two four-day games which are meant to fully prepare them for the First Test.

From that point of view, the exercise was a success if hardly thrilling.

Gough provided the only real excitement today. He uprooted Ian Daniel's middle stump with a ball of fullish length, then hit the same piece of timber even harder after piercing Pradeep Hewage's defence with a yorker.

Caddick's successes were less spectacular. White ended a stand of 105 when Malintha Perera played on, then Caddick won an lbw appeal against Anushka Polonowitha before later striking twice with consecutive deliveries.