AFTER going ten games without defeat in any competition, Yorkshire took their foot off the pedal in their one-day friendly with Sri Lanka 'A' at Headingley on Saturday and were beaten by seven wickets.

It was a thoroughly deserved win by their enthusiastic and talented opponents and it came with 24 balls to spare in a match reduce to 35 overs a side by morning rain.

Sri Lanka' three front-line pacemen all swung the ball in helpful conditions to reduced Yorkshire to 51-5 and they were only saved from severe embarassment by a 74 stand for the sixth wicket between Phil Jaques and Dewsbury-born wicketkeeper-batsman, Ismail Dawood, who is being given an extended run in the first team and should make his Championship debut at Scarborough later this month.

Dawood, caught at slip off a no-ball on seven, went on to make 22 off 38 balls with one boundary before being run out attempting a second, but Jaques remained firmly in charge until he showed all his stumps to Nuwan Kulasekara and was bowled for 79 from 72 deliveries with seven fours and a six.

Yorkshire were rallied by an entertaining unbroken stand of 43 in three overs between Richard Dawson and Chris Silverwood, who hit a glorious straight six off Kaushal Lokuarachchi, but a total of 179-7 presented the eager tourists with few problems.

Silverwood was flogged for 37 in four overs as Saman Jayantha and the left-handed Avishka Gunawardene rattled up 74 for the first wicket in just ten overs and Yorkshire were never in the hunt although off-spinner Andy Gray bagged a couple of wickets, including that of Gunawardene who top-scored with a 69-ball 61 which contained five fours and two sixes.

Yorkshire v Sri Lanka 'A'

(at Headingley)

Sri Lanka A Innings

Jayantha c Wood b Craven 31

Gunawardene lbw b Gray 61

Daniel b Gray 30

Mubarak not out 24

Kandamby not out 19

Extras lb3 w8 nb4 15

Total 3 wkts (31 overs) 180

Fall: 1-74 2-129 3-142.

Did not bat: H A P W Jayawardene, W M G Ramyakumara, K S Lokuarachchi, M T T Mirando, K M D N Kulasekara, K T G D Prasad.

Bowling: Silverwood 4-0-37-0 Blain 6-0-35-0 Kirby 4-0-25-0 Craven 2-0-15-1 Dawson 7-0-31-0 Gray 7-1-29-2 Wood 1-0-5-0.

Yorkshire Innings

Wood b Kulasekara 13

Gale c Jayawardene b Mirando 2

Jaques b Kulasekara 79

Lumb c Jayawardene b Prasad 0

Craven c Jayawardene b Prasad 1

Gray b Prasad 2

Dawood run out 22

Dawson not out 24

Silverwood not out 26

Extras w7 nb3 10

Total 7 wkts Innings Complete (35 overs) 179

Fall: 1-17 2-20 3-24 4-36 5-51 6-125 7-136.

Did not bat: J A R Blain, S P Kirby.

Bowling: Mirando 7-0-26-1 Kulasekara 7-1-34-2 Prasad 7-1-31-3 Ramyakumara 6-0-32-0 Lokuarachchi 5-0-29-0 Jayantha 2-0-17-0 Mubarak 1-0-10-0.

Umpires: G I Burgess and J H Evans.

Sri Lanka 'A' beat Yorkshire by seven wickets

Saturday

First Test Match

Darwin: Australia 207 (D S Lehmann 57, W P U J C Vaas 5-31) & 201 (A C Gilchrist 80, D S Lehmann 51, L S Malinga 4-42) v Sri Lanka 97 (G D McGrath 5-37) & 162 (M S Kasprowicz 7-39) Australia beat Sri Lanka by 149 runs.

Twenty20 Cup

South Division

The Brit Oval: Surrey Lions 198-5 (M R Ramprakash 76 no, M A Butcher 53) v Hampshire Hawks 167-9 (A J Hollioake 5-34) Surrey beat Hampshire by 31 runs.

Updated: 11:33 Monday, July 05, 2004