Kanthan shines for SL in Indian batting fest

India U19 scored 384 for the loss of 7 wickets as all their batsmen took their batting knocks throughout the day. V. Kanthan shined for the hosts as he took 4 wickets.

After batting the whole day the home team decided to declare their inning this morning. Skipper Anuj Rawat and Pawan Shah opened the batting for India while Selvarasa Mathushan and Chamika Gunasekara opened the bowling for the hosts.

Read: Solid batting by SL U19 President’s XI

Trailing by 253 runs, the Indian opening pair started decently with both batsmen middling the ball quite easily. In fact Pawan Shah scored 18 runs off Gunasekara’s 3rd over with 4 blistering boundaries. The two stylish Indian openers brought up their 50 in just 6.1 overs making it really hard for the Lankan seamers to settle in.

As the seamers went for 60 in 8 overs skipper Kamil Mishara brought on left-arm orthodox spinner Rohan Sanjaya to try and restrict the free flowing Indian duo. The unstoppable Shah completed his 41-ball fluent 50 despite Sri Lanka’s spin threat.

Maheesh Theekshana then started to show his prowess by taking the wicket of Indian skipper Anuj Rawat with a quicker delivery. Interestingly Maheesh resembled Ajantha Mendis surprising the Indian camp.

Mystery spinner Maheesh Theekshana and left-arm orthodox spinner Dilum Sudheera brought some sort of control to the inning which was just a one-side traffic otherwise. As a result Taide hit one very hard into the hands of the short-leg fielder which bounced off his hands. He and the keeper couldn’t hold onto the popped out ball which fell just short of both the diving fielders denying Maheesh his second wicket.

Photos: Sri Lanka U19 vs India U19 | Practice Match | Day 1

After Pawan Shah retired after scoring 70 in 70 Taide threw his bat at a wide delivery as he edged it to a wide 3rd slip Kevin Perera giving Lakshan Gamage his first wicket. Soon after that Kamil Mishara at slip dropped Dewdutt on 5 off a quick Maheesh delivery.

The visitors scored their 150 in the 29th over as Padikkal and Juyal looked very fluent after lunch. Vice-captain Aryan Juyal brought his 50 with a nicely worked single square of the wicket. He also retired just after reaching his 50.

Devdutt Padikkal reached his 50 as he guided the Indian inning along with Yash Rathod after Medulaka Wijethilaka took the wicket of Nehal Wadhera. Devdutt Padikkal retired after scoring 75 runs. The 300 was up in just 54 overs.

Read: India U19 tour of Sri Lanka 2018 – Fixtures released 

Rathod pulled hard at a short ball which Madhushan at deep mid-wicket misjudged and eventually had to dive to reach it. For his bad luck he spilled it. Rathod was bowled by a superb Kanthan delivery.

Sameer Chaudhary hit one really hard, straight to the head of the silly-point fielder which bounced off his helmet and landed safely in the slip fielder Kamil Mishara’s hands becoming Kanthan’s 2nd wicket.

Then came in Arjun Tendulkar who gave a straight forward catch to the mid-wicket fielder Ruwin as he departed for 5 with just 1 boundary. It was the 3rd wicket for Kanthan.

Kanthan struck again as Muditha Lakshan took a good running catch at deep mid-wicket to get rid of Ayush Badani. It was incidentally the last ball of the match as the match was stopped since all the Indian batsmen had taken their batting opportunities.