Setting the default value for a data bound drop down list item.

Can someone please tell me how to set an asp:DropDownList default/pre-selected value when it's bound to a data source. My html and vb code looks like this

<asp:DropDownList id="lstStatus" runat="server" Width="403px" DataTextField="statusName" DataValueField="statusID" class='textbox'></asp:DropDownList
Function GetStatuses() As System.Data.IDataReader
 Dim connectionString As String = connectionStringToAssignSQLServer
 Dim dbConnection As System.Data.IDbConnection = New System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection(connectionString)
 Dim queryString As String = "SELECT tblStatus.[statusID], tblStatus.[statusName] FROM tblStatus"
 Dim dbCommand As System.Data.IDbCommand = New System.Data.SqlClient.SqlCommand
 dbCommand.CommandText = queryString
 dbCommand.Connection = dbConnection
 dbConnection.Open
 Dim dataReader As System.Data.IDataReader = dbCommand.ExecuteReader(System.Data.CommandBehavior.CloseConnection)
 Return dataReader
 End Function
Sub Page_Load(Sender as Object, e as EventArgs)
lstStatus.DataSource = GetStatuses()
lstStatus.DataBind()
End Sub

the drop down list has five values selected from the database. I want the current value eg (raised) to be the selected value instead of the order it comes from the database. In case you were wondering, It is possible to pass the current value (ID) from the previous page.

Thanks a lot.Once the ddl is populated, you make the query to the database for the item you want selected --

Then:
DropDownList.Items.FindByText("TextYouWantSelected").Selected = true
Thanks a lot! it worked straight away!