Cook serves up half-century

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The Essex left-hander was dropped for the final match of England's successful NatWest Series, but given the chance to open again during their only warm-up game prior to the start of their five-match series against Sri Lanka - which begins at Dambulla on Monday - Cook rose to the challenge.

Despite struggling to exploit the early overs of fielding restrictions, Cook battled through to claim a half-century off 69 balls and helped England reach 104 for one at the halfway stage of their innings.

One of five players in doubt for the match with a stomach virus - captain Paul Collingwood, Stuart Broad, Luke Wright and Kevin Pietersen were the others - Cook opened with Phil Mustard.

The Durham wicketkeeper-batsman was given his chance after an outstanding domestic season and Matt Prior's unfortunate broken right thumb sustained during England's ICC World Twenty20 campaign.

But having built his reputation on his attacking strokeplay, Mustard struggled to force the pace and took 15 balls just to get off the mark.

Perhaps frustrated by his inability to score more quickly, Mustard fell for 17 trying to hit seamer Sujeewa de Silva over the top and was caught at mid-on.

Cook, though, battled through to reach a half-century with his third boundary.