Leicestershire CC wins in Lanka

By Bernie Wijesekera

The Leicestershire Country Cricket Club made a short tour to Sri Lanka arriving on March 14. The English county team played three one-dayers against Sri Lanka Cricket Academy.

The Grace Road Country made this spring tour in preparation for the year 2007 Country Cricket Championship. The tourists won two-one. Incidentally two former Sri Lankan cricketers dazzled for Leicestershire CC – Stanley Jayasinghe and lefthander Clive Inman.

The first match on March 17 at S. Thomas’ College grounds Mount Lavinia. Sri Lanka Cricket Academy batting first made 231. Nadeera Nawela top-scored with (74) (Six fours) was involved in a 136-run stand for the 4th wicket Roshane Silva 64, (6x4, 2x6) highlighted the innings.

SLCA 231 (Nadeera Nawela 74, Roshane Silva 64, Nick Walker 3/27, David Stiff 3/47.
Leicestershire CC 235/7 in 49.5 overs (John Maunders 50, James Allenby 48, Tom New 32, David Masters 24 n.o., R. Silva 2/39, Nisal Randika 2/31).

Leicester won by 3 wickets.

Second match – Police Park on March 19. This match was highlighted by an aggressive and attractive 3rd wicket 140 run stand (off 120 balls) between Ishan Muthalif 113 (19x4, 1x6) Sahan Wijeratne 42 (4x4, 1x6).

SLCA 361 (I. Muthalif 113, S. Wijeratne 42, Nisal Randika 86, Kaushal Weeraratne 52, Harry Gurney 3/45).

Leicestershire 80 in 21.5 overs (John Maunders 26 n.o., S. Eranga 4/30, Thisara Perera 4/21, Upul Indrasiri 2/11).

SLCA scored an emphatic 281 win.

Third match on March 21 at Police Park

Leicestershire 261/9 in 50 overs (D. Robinson 31, John Sadler 73, Paul Harrison 43, Matt Boyce 55, Ravi Karunaratne 4/62).
SLCA 256 in 48.3 overs (Lahiru Thirimanne 59 (10x4). T. Masmulla 34, Ravi Karunaratne 66, Suraj Mohamed 26, Daniel Rewe 2/46, J. Naik 2 for 43). Leicester won a thriller by 11 runs.
The visitors went to India on March 22 – the second leg of their tour.