Because of a number of injuries, it was a depleted Essex side that met Sri Lanka 'A' in a four-day friendly at Chelmsford last week.

The home side included five teenagers but on a featherbed wicket, bat ruled ball throughout proceedings.

The visitors, with four Test players in their ranks, displayed their characteristic attractive stroke play while the bowling comprised a number of leg spin and wrist spinners.

Sri Lanka scored 364 in their first innings with Justin Bishop (1-58), Andrew McGarry (2-72) and Tim Phillips (4-42) all achieving their maiden first class wickets.

Essex replied with 442 all out, with Paul Grayson scoring 125 and Ronnie Irani a career best 153.

The Sri Lankans though won few friends when they batted throughout the final day with a number of the sparse gathering of spectators giving vent to their feelings with jeers of derision and slow handclapping.

Not one hospitality tent was sold and those who decided to stay away were proven right as the options of watching paint dry or the grass grow proved more worthwhile.

The game was finally concluded as a draw when the Tourists declared at 5.20pm with their score on 525 for seven and a lead of 447 runs.

Why they were not prepared to declare during the afternoon to set the home side a challenging target remains a mystery and a situation that left Essex skipper Ronnie Irani saying, "Their captain asked me how many runs we would be prepared to chase and I told him we would have a go at between 280 and 300 in 50 overs.

"He told me that he would let me know and I'm still waiting to hear from him. The final day was one of total frustration for our players and the spectators''.

What became a draw bore ended with Danny Law, having earlier turned to bowling spin, then taking over behind the stumps from Barry Hyam who in turn bowled two overs -- for the first time in first-class cricket.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.