Ireland ‘A’ smell rare victory over Sri Lanka ‘A’

The visiting Ireland ‘A’ side just continued to extent their dominance over Sri Lanka ‘A’ as they enforced the hosts to follow on in the 2nd innings. Sri Lanka ‘A’ once again found themselves struggling in the 2nd innings after they were bundled out for 303 in the 1st innings.

Sri Lanka ‘A’ vice-captain, Angelo Perera resumed the day for Sri Lanka ‘A’ along with Kamindu Mendis as the duo added 38 runs early in the day. After taking the home team from 99/3 to 137, Kamindu Mendis fell to left-arm spinner James Cameron-Dow for 17 runs.

Read : Sri Lanka ‘A’ face an uphill task against Ireland ‘A’

Sammu Ashan then got together with Angelo Perera to take Sri Lanka past 200. The duo batting with complete control over the Irish bowlers putting on 90 valuable runs for the 5th wicket. In the meantime Angelo Perera reached his 16th first-class century.

It was Craig Young who once again provided Ireland with the crucial breakthrough dismissing Angelo for 127 runs. Angelo’s 161-ball knock included 17 boundaries. Wicket keeper batsman Manoj Sarathchandra was dismissed soon for 9 runs by 18-year old Jonathan Garth.

With the hosts 6 wickets down for 247 runs Sammu Ashan and Chamika Karunaratne provided the last bit of worthy resistance before Cameron-Dow started to wreck the home team. He picked up the last 4 Sri Lankan wickets in the space of 9.3 overs as Sri Lanka were bowled out for 303, 205 runs behind the Irish.

Sammu Ashan was the last wicket to fall as his fighting knock ended on 72. He hit 6 boundaries and 2 sixes during his 118-ball knock before he became Cameron-Dow’s 5th scalp. Cameron-Dow finished with impressive figures of 5/99 while Craig Young picked 3 wickets for 76 runs.

Following on, trailing by 205 runs, Sri Lanka once again failed to start well. Left-arm pacer Joshua Little dismissed Avishka Fernando in the 5th over for 15 runs, leaving the hosts struggling at 29/1. Sarathchandra, who was promoted up the order, then put up 51 runs with Pathum Nissanka for the 2nd wicket.

It was the 18-year old, Garth who picked up Sarathchandra in the 1st innings, provided the breakthrough for Ireland dismissing Sararthcandra yet again. Sri Lanka ‘A’ skipper Ashan Priyanjan was dismissed for 7 by Cameron-Dow, soon after Sarathchandra was dismissed for 15.

Centurion in the 1st innings, Angelo Perera was also dismissed cheaply by Garh leaving Sri Lanka in deep trouble on 139/4, still trailing by 66 runs. Kamindu Mendis somehow managed to remain unbeaten as Sri Lanka saw through the day with Pathum Nissanka unbeaten on 92.

With wickets tumbling in the end, Nissanka held his nerve and played a fighting innings to help Sri Lanka reduce the deficit to 25 runs by the end of day’s play.

Ireland will walk in as favourites to win the match tomorrow with the expectation of bundling out Sri Lanka soon and chase down the required target, which would be pretty much a gettable one, if the Irish succeed in bowling out the hosts soon.

On the other hand Sri Lanka will rely heavily on Pathum Nissanka, who is unbeaten on 92 and young batsmen Kamindu Mendis and Sammu Ashan.