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Prasanna's six sets up huge victory

Sri Lanka A 109 for 0 (Warnapura 61*, Karunaratne 48*) beat England Lions 108 (Woakes 45*, Prasanna 6-23) by 10 wickets
Scorecard

Sri Lanka A levelled their one-day series against England Lions with a crushing 10-wicket victory secured before the scheduled innings break at New Road. Having opened the bowling, legspinner Seekkuge Prasanna took 6 for 23 as the Lions fell to 27 for 6 before limping to 108 and the Sri Lankans needed just 17.2 overs to reach their target.

The pitch was very dry but the Lions early collapse was still astonishing. The Sri Lankans had clearly noted the conditions when they gave Prasanna the new ball and he needed just five deliveries to strike, having Alex Hales stumped for 2. Three of the top six fell for ducks - Joe Root, Ben Stokes and Jonny Bairstow - as Prasanna's variations proved too much to handle.

James Taylor, the captain who scored a hundred in the previous match, became Prasanna's sixth when he was trapped lbw sweeping. At that moment Prasanna had a chance of beating Rahul Sanghvi's figures of 8 for 15 for Delhi in 1997-98 as the best in List A cricket, but he couldn't add to his tally and the Lions momentarily stopped the slide.

Chris Woakes and Scott Borthwick added 30 for the seventh wicket before Borthwick went back and was lbw to Sachithra Serasinghe. Stuart Meaker played a poor shot, but Woakes showed an impressive technique to counter the conditions as the score edged into three figures.

However, if the Lions spinners hoped to get similar assistance to cause the Sri Lankans problems, they were soon disappointed. Borthwick, the legspinner, opened the bowling but his seven overs cost 42 while Simon Kerrigan, the Lancashire left-armer, was taken for a run-a-ball.

Malinda Warnapura sped to a half-century from 41 balls, hitting twice as many boundaries himself as the Lions managed in their whole innings. The deciding match of the series takes place at Wantage Road on Tuesday and all eyes will be on the surface. If it spins Sri Lanka A will fancy their chances.