Perera anchors Sri Lanka's eighth win

Sri Lanka A 367 and 256 for 6 (Perera 86*, Wijekooon 67*) beat Glamorgan 169 and 451 (Kulasekara 6-109) by four wickets
Scorecard

Sri Lanka A maintained their stranglehold over England's county cricketers, as Bathiya Perera secured their eighth win in nine matches with an unbeaten 86, in a four-wicket win at Cardiff. After sweeping to seven wins out of seven in the one-day leg of their tour, Sri Lanka were held to a draw by West Indies at Arundel last week, but were back to winning ways against Glamorgan today.

Those one-dayers were a bit of a breeze for Sri Lanka, but today they were made to display their true colours, as Glamorgan - led by Robert Croft - produced a tenacious defence of a meagre target. Had it not been for their inadequate first-innings total of 169, Glamorgan would surely have won this game.

Sri Lanka were 29 for 1 overnight, needing another 225 for victory. But they were soon rocked back on their heels by Darren Thomas, who removed Malintha Gajanayake without addition to the score, and then followed up with the big wicket of Jehan Mubarak, Sri Lanka's captain, who was caught by David Hemp for 2.

The opener, Shantha Kalavitigoda, played a fluent innings of 39, until he was extracted by Andrew Davies, whereupon Croft settled into a probing spell, and was rewarded with two wickets as Sri Lanka slipped to 156 for 6. But Gayan Wijekooon's attacking intent was just the foil that Perera needed, and together they added exactly 100 for the seventh wicket to seal the match.