The Sri Lanka U19s put together an impressive display with both bat and ball to ease past the England 19s in the quarter finals of the ICC under 19 World Cup, in Mirpur earlier today.
Photo Album – Sri Lanka U19 vs England U19 – Quarter Finals
The Lankans came into the match as favourites, even though they were beaten by the Pakistan U19s in their last group stage match and they lived up to expectations with a performance that left the Englishmen in the dust. The match was set up by the bowlers, who kept the English batsmen largely under control and then finished off by a brilliant knock by Avishka Fernando.
England’s top three had shown themselves to be in excellent form coming into the match, with Dan Lawrence and Jack Burnham both getting big hundreds earlier on in the tournament. Having won the toss, the English camp would have hoped that this trend continued as they chose to take first lease of the wicket. Sri Lanka’s opening bowlers made sure that the batsmen did not get away early on by bowling tight lines; both openers fell to spearhead Asitha Fernando. With the run rate hovering around 3 at the 15 over mark, England’s mainstay Burnham played on, leaving his team at 47/3. Sri Lankan skipper Charith Asalanka made maximum use of his spinners as they put a stranglehold on the English middle order. Callum Taylor looked like he would pull his team out of trouble but he got an iffy LBW decision and had to make his way back to the pavilion for 42. Sam Curran and George Bartlett put on a brief partnership but both fell in consecutive overs to leave England tottering on 125/6. Wickets continued to tumble from that point on with only Skipper Brad Taylor and Ben Green putting up some resistance. Green’s wicket in particular was a very important one as he looked like he could take the score closer to 200. England were ultimately bowled out in the 50th over, leaving Sri Lanka a tricky chase of 185 to win.
All the bowlers, save Charana Nanayakkara (who only bowled one over), picked up wickets with Asitha Fernando and Wanindu Hasaranga, who picked up 5 wickets between them, being the most impressive of the 8 bowlers used.
So far in the tournament, Sri Lanka has relied heavily on skipper Asalanka and Sammu Ashan to score the majority of runs for the team. Today, however, a new hero stepped up to ensure Sri Lanka’s progression in the tournament. It is fair to say that Avishka Fernando has had a pretty disappointing tournament, but he came to the party today, stroking his way to a brilliant 95 off 96 deliveries. His 76 run partnership with fellow opener Kaveen Bandara featured just 22 runs from the latter as the English bowlers were taken to the cleaners by Fernando. England finally got the breakthrough when a direct hit by Lawrence caught Bandara short of his crease. They soon had a 2nd wicket with Kamindu Mendis falling a few overs later. England seemed reinvigorated but Fernando and Asalanka’s partnership of 69 put any hopes of a Sri Lankan collapse to bed. Fernando made a mad dash for a hundred but he fell disappointingly short, but by then, the match was all but won. Asalanka fell 2 runs short of the target but Vishad Randika gloved the ball to the boundary to finish the match; Sri Lanka winning by 6 wickets with close to 15 overs to go.
England looked out of their depth in the bowling department as most of their bowlers were taken to the sword by Fernando.
Sri Lanka will face favourites India in the semi-finals on Tuesday, the 9th of February at the Shere Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur.
England U19 – 184 all out (49.2) Callum Taylor 42, Ben Green 26, Wanindu Hasaranga 3/34, Asitha Fernando 2/16
Sri Lanka U19 – 186/4 (35.4) Avishka Fernando 95, Charith Asalanka 34, Kaveen Bandara 22, Dan Lawrence 1/33, Mason Crane 1/35
Result – Sri Lanka U19s won by 6 wickets (with 86 balls remaining)
