Jayatileke stars as Sri Lanka dominates third day’s play

Left arm spinner Supechala Jayatileke shone as the Sri Lanka Under 19 outfit dominated the proceedings on the third day in the second four day Youth Test against the visiting England Under 19 side at the P. Sara Stadium yesterday.

The Lankan left arm spinner Supechala Jayatileke in action against the visiting English teenagers. (Pic. by Ranjith Perera)

The Josephians spinner ended with figures of 5 for 57 to bowl out the visitors resuming from their overnight score of 158 for 2 to a score of 373. This was in reply to Sri Lanka’s mammoth score of 542. The England side made to follow on, with a deficit of 169 runs, ended the day on 104 for no loss.

The morning session of day three belonged to Jayatileke and right arm pacies Lahiru Jayaratne and Sanitha de Mel who had their opponents under control.

The trio succeeded in putting them on the back foot by capturing four wickets in this session. Despite a 61 runs stand for the third wicket between the overnight batsmen opener Sam Wood and skipper Lewis Gregory, the dismissal of this duo saw them going into lunch with the score on 241 for 6. Wood who was on 110 added another 20 runs to his tally to make 130 that included 21 boundaries and two sixes while Gregory who was on seven made a patience 52 with seven boundaries.

Later in the day Christian Davies and all-rounder Adam Ball put on a stand of 84 runs for the seventh wicket with Ball making his second successive half ton when he made 81 with 14 boundaries.

In the England youths’ second essay saw openers Sam Wood end the day making an unbeaten 62 with eight boundaries and a six and Daniel Bell-Drummond 29.

With the final day’s play scheduled to begin today the match is heading for an inevitable draw. The two sides will battle out in a five limited over game which is due to get underway on January 28 at the Colts ground.

The second and third limited over match due to be played on January 30 and February 1 will also be played at the Colts ground. The fourth and fifth games due to be played on February 3 and 5 will be played at the SSC ground.