Canada will be disappointed with their first match of the year which has resulted in a big defeat at the hands of Sri Lanka A. Coming from the cold of Canada to the 30+ temperatures in Colombo was never going to be easy, but they will have expected better from themselves.

Rizwan Cheema was captaining Canada for the first time and he started his captaincy career well by winning the toss and choosing to bat first.

Cheema opened the batting with Sri Lankan born Trevin Bastiampillai, and scored at what for him was a remarkably sedate rate, making ten from 22 balls before Nuwan Pradeep removed him. Bastiampillai stayed in to make 33, but by the time he was out, three other wickets had fallen and Canada were 75/5.

A 58 run partnership for the eighth wicket between Umar Bhatti and Khurram Chohan gave the Canadian innings a measure of respectibility before Bhatti was out for 34, the highest score of the innings. Chohan stayed in until the end of the innings, making an unbeaten 28 in Canada's total of 175/9.

The target was never going to be much trouble for a Sri Lanka A side that featured a number of full internationals. They scored quickly, with Gihan Rupasinghe top scoring with an unbeaten 74 that took Sri Lanka A to their target in the 33rd over of their innings to secure the six wicket win.

This may have been a weakened Canadian side, with Ashish Bagai, John Davison, Sunil Dhaniram, Geoff Barnett, Henry Osinde and Ian Billcliff all absent, but Canada shouldn't use that as an excuse for what was a poor performance.

The two teams meet again on Monday.

Sri Lanka A beat Canada by 6 wickets
23 January, Nondescripts CC, Colombo
Canada 175-9 (50 overs, A Fernando 3-28, M Maharoof 3-37)
Sri Lanka A 180-4 (32.4 overs, R Rupasinghe 74*)