AFTER ten games without defeat in any competition, Yorkshire took their foot off the pedal in their one-day friendly with Sri Lanka A at Headingley on Saturday and were beaten by seven wickets.

It was a thoroughly deserved win by their enthusiastic and talented opponents and it came with 24 balls to spare in a match reduced to 35 overs a side by rain.

Sri Lanka's three frontline pacemen all swung the ball in helpful conditions to reduce Yorkshire to 51 for five and they were only saved from severe embarassment by a 74 stand for the sixth wicket between Phil Jaques and Dewsbury-born wicketkeeper-batsman, Ismail Dawood, who is being given an extended run in the first team and should make his Championship debut at Scarborough.

Dawood, caught off a no-ball on seven, went on to make 22 off 38 balls with one boundary before being run out attempting a second, but Jaques remained firmly in charge until he showed all his stumps to Nuwan Kulasekara and was bowled for 79.

Yorkshire were rallied by an entertaining unbroken stand of 43 in three overs between Richard Dawson and Chris Silverwood, who hit a glorious straight six off Kaushal Lokuarachchi, but a total of 179 for seven presented few problems.

Silverwood was flogged for 37 in four overs as Saman Jayantha and the left-handed Avishka Gunawardene rattled up 74 for the first wicket in just ten overs and Yorkshire were never in the hunt although off-spinner Andy Gray bagged a couple of wickets, including that of Gunawardene who top-scored with a 69-ball 61.

l England are unlikely to use their tour to Zimbabwe as a chance to rest their leading players in preparation for the tour to South Africa which follows.

The ICC announced England would fulfil the one-day leg of their tour after Zimbabwe were suspended from Test cricket for the remainder of the year following a strike by leading players.

It has left Zimbabwe with a shadow squad but despite moral objections and political protests about the oppressive regime of President Robert Mugabe, England have agreed to compete in a one-day series in November and have also accepted a suggestion to play five matches instead of four.

But captain Michael Vaughan has underlined that England are unlikely to send a weaker squad to Zimbabwe if the tour goes ahead and stressed they would use the matches as important build-up to the 2007 World Cup.

''I don't think we're due to go until the end of November and if we reach the final of the ICC Champions Trophy, that's at the end of September so there's still two months rest there and I wouldn't have thought we would have been resting players for that,'' said Vaughan.

''It's crucial we keep Steve Harmison in tip-top form and condition, but that tour is two months after the season has finished and that's quite a long time to have a rest. There are only 35 one-day matches between now and the World Cup."