Sri Lanka U 17 turned tables on the touring English juniors in the second match of the England U-17 tour of Sri Lanka, match played today at the R.Premadasa Stadium, Colombo.
Sri Lankan skipper Charith Asalanka won the toss and elected to bat first on a good looking wicket where the outfield was drying after the overnight rain which the Sri Lankan skipper stated to ThePapare ‘was the main reason batting first’
Play started later than scheduled at 11.15 a.m. as the newly re-laid Kettharama stadium was soggy. Play was constricted to 43 overs maximum per side. The Sri Lankan innings was opened by skipper Asalanka of Richmond and Shanujeeth Shammuganathan of Trinity College Kandy. It looked a solid start by the duo but, Shammuganathan lost his wicket to Ben Green in the 5th over, the score read 21 for the loss of one wicket.
Things got worse for the home side when number 3 batsman Kavin Bandara fell victim to Green once again without troubling the scores facing just 2 balls. The score read a dreadful 22 for 2 in 5.4 overs.
The skipper was then joined by Avishka Fernando and the two steadied the ship for the home team. It was a smart passage of play by the young lads from Europe where they looked to cut down the two attacking batsmen with smart field settings by the captain backed up by the bowlers and fielders who threw themselves around to limit runs as much as possible. The Lankan batsmen on the other hand looked settled at the start, playing some delightful strokes but then lost concentration and eventually paid the price. The skipper was the first culprit when he tried to cut a ball which was too close to him where should have been played straighter and fell for a 27 off 33 deliveries. It is believed that when a partnership is broken the surviving batsman also loses his wicket in quick succession and that’s just what happened when Avishka Fernando who looked unsettled all of a sudden chipped a ball straight to the bowler on 27 to give Brad Taylor his second wicket.
Kamindu Mendis made a respectable 25 off 31 balls to take Sri Lanka out of a little trouble but it was falling from the frying pan to the fire when Wanindu Hasaranga lost his wicket in the very first ball he faced. Two wickets, in two balls with the score at 101 in 27.2 overs; Sri Lanka on the skids!
The outfield was slow and the British fielding was up to the mark apart from a few mishaps here and there but, the Sri Lankan batsmen should have looked to convert the singles into twos and threes taking into consideration the slow outfield and more runs could have been added by putting pressure on the fielders by pushing for the added runs. Malinga Amarasinghe’s painful knock of 11 in a whopping 41 balls slowed things down too much for the home side.
Navindu Nirmal and Damith Silva put on a gutsy 54 run partnership for the 7th wicket which gave some respectability to the Sri Lankan score. Nirmal scored 24 runs and Silva chipped in with a 28 ball 19 runs. With a little help from the tail and luck going the Sri Lankans way, the innings ended at 179 with all batsmen dismissed and one over to spare.
Ben Green ended as the pick of the bowlers with figures of, 6 wickets for 40 runs. A promising showcase of fast bowling by the tall right arm medium pace bowler, while the specialist offie, Brad Taylor ended with figures of 2 wickets for 30 runs. The bowling department didn’t look too dangerous but it was smart and the spinners were not afraid to toss the ball up in the air and vary the pace.
The English inning got off to a disastrous start when the first wicket fell for no run. It was a brilliant delivery by young Malinga Amarasinghe which nipped back and the umpire did not hesitate to give the batsman out.
Captain Haseeb Hameed walked in as the best batsman of the Englishmen and looked to steady the ship and did so with a well compiled 34 runs. The English batting order seemed to take their own time in scoring runs and was kept humble for a long time with the young lion cubs bowling very tight lines and lengths, not allowing the batsmen to cut loose. Perhaps the decision of opening the bowling with spin on one side was a very good tactic by the Lankan captain where he bowled to block runs from his end while, seamer Amarasinghe attacked and looked to take wickets from the other end.
Simon Walton looked to be the man for England. He seemed settled and not rushed taking his own time. Maybe this was his undoing as he fell for 25 runs having spent a lot of time at the crease and in the end not being able to finish the job.
The Sri Lankan fielding was up to the mark and the bowling was spectacular to watch. Trinity’s 100-wicket taking Raveen Sayer bowled very well although he was not able to outshine the dream bowler of the match; Thilan Nimesh who ended with figures of 5 for just 25 runs. “Experience paid a huge role” stated Nimesh when he was spoken to by ThePapare.com at the end of the match.
Although Joe Weatherly also chipped in with a hard -working 23, the rest of the English line up simply crumbled with Damith Silva taking 2 wickets for 31 runs and Thilan Nimesh of Prince of Walse College Moratuwa who stealing the lime-light with his 5 wicket haul.
The fielders were on their toes throughout the game and very little misfields were to be seen by the Sri Lankans and Kaveen Bandara the vice captain of the side effected a brilliant run out which was the showpiece of the day. Although the field setting was quite orthodox, the captain seemed well in control of the game moving around his fielders and talking to his bowlers quite regularly. The plan for Sri Lanka seemed simple; stick to the basics, do the little things right and wait till the batsmen make a mistake, which is just what the Englishmen did. You could say the England batsmen under rated the bowlers and looked to take the chase easy but, in the end started to panic and eventually collapsed 52 runs behind the required.
England were all out for 127 runs in 39.3 overs. The visitors made the cardinal error of not rotating the strike and the bowlers did justice to this backed up by solid fielding.
It was a slow flowing game but turned out to be interesting towards the end. Now the home team has leveled the one day series 1-1 and will look to go all guns blazing on the 21st at the same venue.
Chief Scores;
Sri Lanka u-17 – 179 all out in 41.1 overs. (Charith Asalanka 27, Avishka Fernando 27, Kamindu Mendis 25. Ben Green 6/40. Brad Taylor 2/30)
England u-17 – 127 all out in 39.3 overs. (Haseeb Hameed 34, Simon Walton 25, Joe Weatherly 23. Thilan Nimesh 5/25, Damith Silva 2/31)
Sri Lanka u-17 won by 52 runs
