On a day where Royal College regained the Bradby Shield after 4 years, two former Royalists – Kithruwan Vithanage and Kusal Janith Perera saved the day for Sri Lanka A scoring fabulous tons as the 3rd unofficial Test match against Pakistan A ended in a draw at Dambulla Cricket Stadium on Saturday.
Sri Lanka A resumed the final day on 119 for 3 with an uphill task of batting out the day and save the game. Kithruwan Vithanage perfectly rose to the occasion as he was first involved in a watchful 124-run stand for the 4th wicket with his skipper, Ashan Priyanjan to narrow down the lead posted by Pakistan A batsmen on day three. Ashan Priyanjan finally delivered but not quite the same as expected when he was caught behind by Adnan Akmal off a Mir Hamza delivery for 54.
Kithruwan was then partnered by his former Royal College mate, Kusal Janith Perera and they counter-attacked in a spectacular way to take the game away from Pakistan A. Both left-handers were involved in a 188-ball match saving stand of 155 for the 5th wicket. Part-time spinner Umar Amin ended Vithanage’s 218-ball knock of 136. He stroked 18 elegant fours to stake his claim for a Test spot in the Sri Lanka national team while Kusal Janith Perera continued to impress as he smashed his 4th ton in this particular series. Kusal remained unbeaten on 102 off 120 balls and his innings comprised 12 fours and a six.
Sri Lanka A ended the final day’s play on 411 for 5 in 116 overs. Shehzad Azam captured 2 wickets for the visitors as the 3-match series ended nil-all. Statistically, Kusal Janith Perera topped the batting charts on both 50-over format and four-day cricket scoring 311 and 334 runs respectively. Earlier in the Test match, he struck 90 runs as well in the Sri Lanka A first innings.
Chief Scores:
Sri Lanka A (1st inn) – 273 all out in 74 overs: Kithruwan Vithanage 48, Kusal Janith Perera 90, Nisala Tharaka 76, Shehzad Azam 3/54, Fawad Alam 4/40, Tabish Khan 2/65.
Pakistan A (1st inn) – 580/8 declared in 149.3 overs: Umar Amin 127, Shan Masood 182, Usman Salahuddin 36, Ali Asad 89, Adnan Akmal 54*, Lahiru Gamage 4/112.
Sri Lanka A (2nd inn) – 411/5 in 116 overs: Udara Jayasundera 56, Dhananjaya De Silva 37, Kithruwan Vithanage 136, Kusal Janith Perera 102*, Ashan Priyanjan 54, Shehzad Azam 2/63.
