Sri Lanka 'A' take unbeatable 2-nil lead

By Ranjan Anandappa

29th November


Sri Lanaka 'A' compensated for their heavy loses in the unofficial test series and took an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match limited over series, beating the West Indies 'A' by 4 wickets in the second one-day game at the P. Sara Stadium yesterday.

Sri Lanka 'A' lost the 'Test' series 2-0 but went two up in the limited over series.

The West Indies 'A' were once again sent in by Marvan Atapattu who was lucky enough to call correct for the second time and restricted their strong batting line up for a meagre 131 off 39.2 overs.

Sri Lanka 'A', after a few anxious moments, reached the required runs for the loss of 6 wickets.

The Sri Lankan batting revolved around left-handed opener Ruwin Peiris who topscored with a courageous 51 off 71 balls and had six boundaries. However, once Peiris was dismissed soon after reaching his 51, the Sri Lankan batting started to fall apart and it was left to the other left-hander Naveed Nawaz and Mahela Jayawardena, the last two recognised batsmen, to pull the Lankans out of the deep hole that they were in.

Ruvin Peiris and Marvan Atapattu (14) batted with fine control, but the right-arm leg-spinner Mahendra Nagamootoo sparked the Sri Lankan batting collapse, first inducing Atapattu to pull a short pitched delivery in to the hands of Floyd Reifer who took a good catch at midwicket. Nagamootoo further went on to take two more wickets in consecutive deliveries in the following over getting rid of Upul Chandana (0 - promoted in the batting order) to a careless shot and sent Kalpage first ball off a delivery that turned sharply and took the edge for Powell to complete a low catch in the slips. Nagamootoo was on a hat trick and Jayawardena, coming in next, played the hat-trick ball down.

Sri Lanka were 94 for 5 and drifting towards a possible defeat but a sensible 40 runs off 12.2 overs for the seventh wicket between Nawaz and Jayawardena saw them reach victory off 34 overs. Nawaz was unbeaten on 29 with two fours facing 68 balls and Jayawardena was not out on 22 with two fours.

When the West Indians batted first, besides openers Stuart Williams (21) and Philo Wallace (48), the rest fell to the spin and pace combination coupled with fine fielding.

Prolific scorer Stuart Williams was bowled by left armer Nuwan Soysa and Wallace was out for 48 (off 91 balls with three fours and a six).

Isipatana schoolboy Nuwan Soysa was the pick of the bowlers, he bowled with good control and fair speed to take 2 for 24 off 10 overs. Pushpakumara, Upul Chandana and Kalpage, too, struck useful blows to take 2 wickets each. The West Indians lost their last 8 wickets for 68 runs off 23.2 overs

The third and final one-day game sponsored by Bank of Ceylon will be played today at the SSC grounds.


Source: The Daily News

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Date-stamped : 25 Feb1998 - 15:00