An aggressive half century from Seekkuge Prasanna upstaged a century by opener Lendl Simmons as West Indies A lost the momentum and toppled to a four wicket defeat against Sri Lanka A in their first ODI at the national stadium on Sunday.
Prasanna smashed a busy unbeaten 51 to hasten a run rate that slowed down after a number of wickets fell on the heels of a solid opening stand that gave the visitors an impressive start.
Parasanna cracked a boundary to bring up his half century and carried Sri Lanka A to 287 for six after West Indies A had posted a competitive 282 for nine in 50 overs.
He faced just 17 balls, batted for 25 minutes and hit three fours and five sixes to bring his side firmly back into the game thereby avoiding a chase to the wire.
Dimuth Karunaratne and Niroshan Dickwella gave Sri Lanka A a powerful start by putting on 138 runs for the first wicket before Nikita Miller made the break through shortly after he was brought into the attack.
Miller bowled Dickwella for 61 and trapped Karunaratne for 89 to end with top figures of three for 51.
Earlier, Simmons scored 106 runs to anchor the Windies A innings after Kirk Edwards won the toss and decided to bat.
Simmons and Edwards shared in a second wicket stand of 116 after the homeside lost opener Nkrumah Bonner for a duck in the fourth ball of the day.
The Trinidadian batsman hit seven fours and five sixes, faced 112 balls and batted for 167 minutes while Edwards supported with 57 which contained three fours and two sixes.
Simmons also shared in a century stand for the third wicket with Narsingh Deonarine who cracked three fours and hit three sixes in a knock of 60.
At one stage in the innings, West Indies A lost wickets quickly including three wickets in three balls with the score on 266.
Miller was run out for one while Andre Fletcher and Shane Sillingford were trapped lbw by Suranga Lakmal in successive balls.
Lakmal was the top bowler for Sri Lanka A with three for 45 while Lahiru Jayaratne and Dilruwan Perera picked up two wickets each.
The second ODI takes place on Tuesday at the national stadium in St.George’s.
