England A defeated by Pakistan A

A Team Triangular Series, Colombo:
Pakistan A 80-5 beat England A 79 by five wickets

Match scorecard

Solanki's departure precipitated a spectacular collapse

England A were beaten by Pakistan A on what appeared to be a poor wicket at Colombo Cricket Club after being bowled out for 79 in 23.4 overs.

Yasir Arafat, signed up by Scottish Saltires, took 6-24 as Ian Bell's side collapsed badly from 30-0.

Pakistan A then lurched to 32-4, only for Misbah-ul-Haq and Riaz Afridi to put on 39 to see their team home to a five-wicket win inside 24 overs.

England A now have one win and one loss in this triangular series.

Pakistan A's victory maintained their 100% record and the pressure is on the host team Sri Lanka A if they are to join them in the final.

TRIANGULAR SERIES TABLE Pakistan A P2 W2 L0 Pts 11 RR 1.47 England A P2 W1 L1 Pts 5 RR -1-12 Sri Lanka A P2 W0 L2 Pts 2 RR -0.26

England A won the toss on Wednesday and elected to bat first.

At first there seemed little concern as Vikram Solanki and Matt Prior began steadily.

But after they were out, only Bell (11) reached double figures and at one stage five wickets tumbled in the middle order for the addition of two runs.

Sajid Mahmood and Jon Lewis started well with the ball, however, to put a modicum of pressure on Pakistan A.

Each bowler took two wickets with the new ball as four men were dimissed inside 12 overs.

It ended up not being a particularly good game of cricket Ian Bell

But Misbah and Riaz had oceans of time to get the runs and were nine runs short of victory when Lancashire seamer Mahmood struck for the third time to remove Afridi for 20.

His efforts were all in vain, however, and England A must bounce back swiftly.

Afterwards, Bell said he was mystified by the conditions.

"We played a four-day game here and it was a belter of wicket and it looked exactly the same today but the ball went round [swung generously].

"It ended up not being a particularly good game of cricket.

"Every time we missed the ball we nicked it and the rub of the green didn't go for us."

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England A: V S Solanki, M J Prior, A N Cook, I R Bell, M J Powell, R Clarke, A P R Gidman, G P Swann, D S Harrison, S I Mahmood, J Lewis.

Pakistan A: Ashar Zaidi, Wajahatullah Wasti, Aamer Bashir, Misbah-ul-Haq, Hasan Raza, Faisal Iqbal, Yasir Arafat, Shahid Nazir, Riaz Afridi, Zulqarnain Haider, Imran Tahir.