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Sinclair guides New Zealand to safety
By Aubrey Kuruppu
An excellent unbeaten hundred made under pressure by the calm, unflappable Matthew Sinclair guided his team into safer waters after they were neck-deep in trouble at 22 for 3 and 97 for 5 on the second day of the Sri Lanka-New Zealand A team match at Asgiriya yesterday. Sinclair hardly put a foot wrong as he shouldered the responsibility of saving his team from an embarrassing situation. His driving wide off mid on was impeccable, and he was untroubled by both pace and spin.

Strangely, Wijekoonwho tore the heart out of the Kiwi batting in the pre lunch session, never bowled a ball in the session between lunch and tea. Bandara, of whom big things were expected, scarcely did himself justice. His field too was a bit inexplicable. Left armer Weerakoon was steady without being dangerous. His over the wicket tactic didn’t work against Sinclair who padded him away.

Earlier, medium pace leftie Gayan Wijekoon had ripped through the Kiwi top order to reduce them to 22 for 3. Wijekoon, moving the ball away sharply from the right handers, had Papps, Cumming and How edging catches behind the wicket. Fulton in tandem with the stylish Sinclair restored a semblance of respectability with a fourth wicket stand of 52.

At 97 for 5,the situation looked very gloomy for New Zealand, but stumper Hopkins batted most sensibly and helped Sinclair to put on 95 for the sixth wicket.

Sri Lanka ‘A’ 225 for 6 cont. 284 ( G. Wijekone 21, M. Bandara 16, C. Martin 5 for 64, C. Harris 2 for 54, P. Wiseman 2 for 24) New Zealand ‘A’ 192 for 5 at close (M. Sinclair 110 n.o., G. Hopkins 24 n.o., G. Wijekone 3 for 34)

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