England Lions are in the box seat to claim a comfortable win over Sri Lanka at the end of Day 3 in the four-day warmup game between the sides played at Worcester.
Sri Lanka began their second innings today with 185 runs behind and the opening pair Dimuth Karunaratne and Nishan Madushka managed to put on a century stand for the first wicket.
Karunaratne was trapped in front by Lyndon James after making 43 runs. At the stroke of Lunch break, Sri Lanka’s No. 3 batter Kusal Mendis was also dismissed by James for just 3 runs.
Madushka also contributed with a fine half-century – 77 runs off 88 balls with 8 fours and 2 sixes. Dinesh Chandimal didn’t trouble the scorers as he ran himself out for a duck.
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Angelo Mathews and the skipper Dhananjaya de Silva then revived the innings, adding 69-run stand for the fifth wicket. Mathews notched up his 58th first-class half-century.
De Silva also went onto score a fine half-century as Sri Lanka posted 306 runs for their second innings. Farhan Ahmed was the pick of the bowlers for England Lions as he grabbed 3 wickets for 87 runs.
Chasing a target of 122 runs to win, England Lions were 47/2 at the close of play on Day 3 needing just 75 more runs with 8 wickets in hand.
Brief Scores
Sri Lanka – 139 (43.5) Dimuth Karunaratne 26, Prabath Jayasuriya 20, Zaman Akhter 5/32, Josh Hull 3/30 & 306 (87.1) Nishan Madushka 77, Dhananjaya de Silva 66, Angelo Mathews 51, Dimuth Karunaratne 43, Sadeera Samarawickrama 25, Farhan Ahmed 3/87, Lyndon James 2/34, Josh Hull 2/44, Zaman Akhter 2/59
England Lions – 324 (89.2) Hamza Shaikh 91, Kasey Aldridge 78, Ben McKinney 46, Rob Yates 25, James Rew 22, Oliver Price 22, Prabath Jayasuriya 5/102, Kasun Rajitha 2/51 & 47/2 (7) Ben McKinney 20, Dhananjaya de Silva 2/13
Stumps – Day 3
