Pinch-hitting opener Kusal Janith Perera cracked an entertaining 81 off 47 balls to set up an easy eight wicket win for Sri Lanka A over Kenya in the third of the seven match series at NCC grounds this afternoon.
Sri Lanka leads the series 3-0. Kusal Perera was at his brutal best hitting his career T20 score as he punished Kenyan bowlers to all corners of the ground with ease. Perera replaced the regular opener Dhanuska Gunathilaka after his match winning 70 in the morning match and made his presence felt with a match winning knock.
He showed no mercy for the bowlers as he plundered six boundaries and five sixes in his 47 ball innings. Perera shared an imposing 116 for the first wicket with Shehan Jayasooriya, who made a patient 32 before the openers departed just six runs away from the convincing victory. Kenyan bowlers were hardly effective as batsmen made merry on a placid batting track.
Earlier Jeevan Mendis, the spinning allrounder ran through the Kenyan innings returning stunning figures of 4 for 14 runs as Kenyan batting first were restricted to their lowest total in the series, 122 for the loss of nine wickets.
Jeevan Mendis produced a stunning spell of leg spin bowling claiming three crucial wickets for 14 runs as Kenya batting first were reduced for 122 runs for nine wickets in their allotted 20 overs. Kenyan great Steve Tikolo showed some character hitting a top score of 26 but the rest of the batting crumbled in the hands of some disciplined bowling by Sri Lankan spin and pace combination. Milinda Siriwardane also took two wickets as Kenya did not show any resistance to the Sri Lankan bowling. It was a convincing win for the Sri Lanka A players who will take on the visitors again on a double header on Thursday. A win on Thursday will give Sri Lanka A an inaccessible lead into the series. Kenya are in Sri Lanka for a hurriedly organized T20 series to get some international exposure ahead of the World T20 qualifiers in Dubai but has returned a despicable performance both with the bat and the ball thus far in the series.
Kenya 122/9 (20.0) (Steve Tikolo 29,Duncal Allan 13, Rakep Patel 10, Thomas Odoyo 14, Raghem Aga 20 n.o, Milinda Siriwardana 2-14, Jeevan Mendis 4-14)
Sri Lanka A 125/2 (16.0 ) ( Kusal Perera 81, Shehan Jayasuriya 32)
