All-round Navod Paranavithana stars as Sri Lanka U19 take 2-1 lead

Sri Lanka U19 continued their winning form, beating India U19 by a mere 7 runs in the 3rd Youth ODI played at the Sinhalese Sports Club Grounds today. With this win the hosts lead the 5-match series 2-1.

Sri Lanka U19 skipper Nipun Dananjaya won the toss and elected to bat first on a ground they won at 3 days ago. Sri Lanka had made 1 change to their winning combination with batsman Sonal Dinusha replacing spinner Avishka Lakshan. The visitors had made 3 changes to their playing XI.

Openers Navod Paranavithana and Nishan Madushka gave Sri Lanka a brilliant start with an important century partnership. Paranavithana went onto score a well-deserved half-century just before he was dismissed to end the 100-run partnership.

Left-arm spinner Siddharth Desai, who dismissed Paranavithana in the 23rd over struck back in the 25th over claiming the wicket of Nishan Madushka (42) who was eyeing a half-century.

Since the successful opening partnership none of the Lankan batting pairs batted together long enough to add valuable contributions as the last 8 wickets fell for just 113 runs. Captain Nipun Dananjaya (26) and pacer Nipun Malinga (24) – who was promoted up the order probably to accelerate the scoring rate, however managed to accumulate 35 runs together for the 4th wicket.

Sonal Dinusha contributed with 20 while Pasindu Sooriyabandara and Sandun Mendis were only able to score 12 and 8 respectively.

The 6 Indian bowlers used today shared the 10 wickets among them while they managed to bundle out the home team for 220 with 3 balls left in the inning.

Captain Nipun Dananjaya leads series leveling Lankan resurgence

Captain Nipun Dananjaya’s unbeaten knock of 92 helped Sri Lanka chase down the modest 193 set by high-flying India U19 to register…

The Lankan pace-duo of Nipun Malinga and Naveen Fernando once again gave a brilliant start with the new ball. Naveen Fernando once again became the first to strike as he picked up Devdutt Padikkal’s wicket in the 8th over when the Indian score was just on 25.

Following the brilliant opening spell by the pacers, the seamers did well to keep the pressure on the Indian batsmen. They chipped on with regular wickets until Pavan Shah and Yash Rathod put back pressure on the Lankans with a threatening 73-run partnership for the 5th wicket.

When the Indians seemed to be edging closer left-arm spinner Shashika Dulshan pulled back the momentum towards the hosts with 2 quick wickets. He dismissed the set Rathod for 37 and bowled Ajaydev Goud (7).

Sandun Mendis then came into the show with 2 quick wickets in the penultimate over to further dent the Indian chase leaving Pavan Shah to score 17 runs in 8 balls to win the match with just 2 wickets remaining. The in-form Pavan Shah then scored a boundary and a single to retain strike as left-arm spinner Paranavithana started the final over with 12 runs to defend.

Pawan Shah who refused to take the single in the first delivery despite hitting it to deep mid-wicket miscued a slog in the next delivery to give Nishan Madushka a very comfortable catch. The last pair of Yatin Mangwani and Siddharth Desai then left with 12 runs to score in 4 balls could not cope up the pressure as Sonal Dinusha finished things with a run-out to hand the hosts a 2-1 lead.

Shashika Dulshan was the star with the ball for Sri Lanka while all-rounders Navod Paranavithana and Sandun Mendis also contributed with 2 valuable wickets each.

Sri Lanka will now go to Moratuwa – where the 4^th and 5^th matches will be played, with high levels of confidence. The 4^th Youth ODI is scheduled to be played on the Tuesday, 7^th of August.