De Silva and Wellalage put Lanka youth in series lead 4-0
An elegant 88 from Nalandian Raveen de Silva and a fine four-wicket haul from captain Dunith Wellalage delivered Sri Lanka Under-19s their fourth straight win in the ongoing Youth One Day International when the host overcame Bangladesh with a thrilling 1-wicket win at the Dambulla Rangiri Stadium yesterday.
The Lankans, chasing 225 in the dead rubber match, also lost their openers cheaply. Making matters worse that soon became four down for 64, including a duck from Lahiru Dewatage, giving Ahosan Habib’s second wicket.
However, de Silva and Pavan Pathiraja paired for the fifth wicket stopped the mini procession, sharing 55 runs between them.
By this time, de Silva notched his first fifty of the series, and ensured the chase was in their favour. However, when the target was in touching distance, he was dismissed for an excellently made 88 off 100, comprising nine fours boundaries and six.
Vinuja Ranpul, also a Nalandian, nearly pulled off an all-Nalanda chase, only for his college mate and teammate to miss out. The last lap of the chase was then in the hands of the tail and reached home with the last three balls to go.
Earlier, the Bangladeshis winning the toss and electing to set the target first, were always troubled by their counterparts inflicting inroads at regular intervals.
They didn’t get off to a good start and were placed at 109-4, when Wellalage found his first victim, trapping Aich Molah, before the pair could settle.
But it was eventually, the partnership between the Bangladeshi skipper SM Meherob (52) Ariful Islam (50) of 89 runs, paving the way to muster a moderate target of 224.
From the bowlers’ unit, it was the spinner in Josephian Wellalage, who turned out to be out a thorn in the young Bengali tigers’ flesh. He led from the front returning to add three more victims to his name finishing the match with a 4 for 45 and restricting them to 224.
Bangladesh U-19 224 for 8 (50) (SM Meherob 52, Ariful Islam 50, Wellalage 4/45)
Sri Lanka U-19 225 for 9 (49.3) (Raveen de Silva 88, Shevon Daniel 32, Pawan Pathiraja 26, Vinuja Ranpal 23, Dunith Wellalage 16, Mushfik Hasan 3/39, Ahosan Habib 2/44)