England Lions proved to be too hot to handle as they hand down a 140 run drubbing to Sri Lanka A at Canterbury.
Bowling has been a big concern for Sri Lanka for the last year or so. Once again it proved to be the downfall for the Lankans. The 6th match of the triangular series between Sri Lanka A, Pakistan A and England lions ended with the Lankans suffering the fourth straight defeat in the tour.
Johannes Malan won the toss and elected to bat first. Their intentions were clear from the beginning and it promised to be a high scoring match. Malan was the star in the first match between these two sides but he missed out this time around. After the early loss of the skipper, James Bell-Drummond and Mathew Duckett dominated the proceedings.
The pair put up an unbeaten 367 runs for the second wicket which helped the Lions to post 425 in their 50 overs. James scored 175 runs off just 139 balls. His innings included 15 boundaries and four sixers. But the star of the day was 21 year old Mathew Duckett. Duckett scored 220 in just 131 balls with 29 boundaries and 6 maximums.
There is nothing much to mention about the bowlers since it was only Ramith Rabulwella who took the sole wicket of the innings. When experienced players like Thisara Perera concede over 100 runs its inevitable that the opposition end up scoring 400+ runs against this bowling attack.
Lankans came out to bat with a mammoth task ahead of them and they had to pull off a miracle to win. Niroshan Dickwella and Mahela Udawatta got things off to flier. Both batsman have been consistent for the Lankans during the series. The pair put on 105 in just 14 overs. Dickwella scored a quick fire 60 while Mahela scored a composed 40 runs.
That was only time Sri Lanka looked like on par with the target. Wickets started to fall and they lost their way in the middle trying to keep up with the asking rate. Angelo Perera top scored with 69 but his innings was of no value at the end of the day. Ultimately Lankans were bowled out for just 285 runs which gave the lions a 140 run victory.
