Tourists suffer setback in only warm-up match ahead of first Test at Old Trafford

ESPNcricinfo staff17-Aug-2024England Lions 324 and 122 for 3 (Yates 57*) beat Sri Lanka 139 and 306 (Madushka 77, Dhananjaya 66, Mathews 51) by seven wicketsRob Yates anchored England Lions with a 68-ball half-century, as Sri Lanka’s tourists slipped to a seven-wicket defeat in their first-class warm-up at Worcester.Chasing a modest 122 for victory after bowling Sri Lanka out for 309 on the third afternoon, the Lions had resumed with victory in sight on 47 for 2 overnight, and needed just 19.5 overs to seal the deal on the final morning.Yates, who had reached the close on 17 not out, added 40 more runs at the top of the order, with Sri Lanka’s only success in the curtailed day’s play coming when Hamza Shaikh, England’s Under-19 captain, was pinned lbw for 16 by Milan Rathnayake.However, James Rew, another recent mainstay of the Under-19 set-up, joined Yates in an unbroken 53-run stand for the fourth wicket, finishing on 23 not out from 41 balls as he picked off the winning single off Dhananjaya de Silva.Sri Lanka now head to Emirates Old Trafford, where the first Test against England gets underway on Wednesday.