England Lions 249 for 3 (Hameed 81, Haines 62*, Lees 56) lead Sri Lanka A 136 (Fisher 5-34) by 113 runs
“It’s nice to be back out on the grass and trying to win games,” Fisher said. “I love the long-form game, it’s fascinating to try and figure out ways to get batters out. We’re using a lot of different tricks than you normally would in England. I have been going to the short ball a lot quicker, which is something they haven’t seemed to play as well as they do the spin.
“It was just about the perfect day’s cricket. We lost the toss and they chose to bat so whenever that happens it’s usually a good wicket. It was a little bit tacky with the new ball, but we made good use of it and put them under pressure. We kept catchers in and kept the pressure on. We were constantly building pressure, with the spinners as well, and were able to take wickets at key intervals.”
“I have bowled better but there was not much in the wicket,” Fisher said. “It seamed a little early on but what I was really pleased with was how direct my bouncers were in and around shoulder and head height. My accuracy with my bouncer was definitely the biggest thing to enable me to take wickets today.
“This is my first trip here and I am enjoying it. I’ve never played in heat like it here. It is 30 degrees which you’d get in other parts f the world but it’s the humidity. Your whole top and bottoms are full of water, you just want to get off and have a shower but thankfully today we didn’t have too long in it and we were back in the air-con changeroom.”
