Eng ’A’ v SL ’A’: Eng Lions survive scare by SL Lions

With 27 overs to go, the first four-day match between the Sri Lanka 'A' and the England Lions ended in a draw on Friday (03) in a rain-forced end in the third and final session at the Galle International Stadium.

At the stoppage point, hosts bowlers managed to pose a serious threat by taking 7 wickets within 221 runs of the English Lions team, who were chasing a target of 333 runs in 68 overs.

That prompted the challenge of defending 3 wickets within 27 overs on the Lions batsmen. Although they were behind by 331 runs in the first innings, Nishan Madushka's exceptional innings of 241 runs led the Lions team to easily win the match, but the advantage of the match turned to the Sri Lanka 'A' team.

Sri Lanka 'A' team had plenty of chances to win the match before the rain and that only backfired in the England team gaining advantage.

Milan Ratnayake, who was outstanding in bowling, bowled 8 overs and gave only 31 runs and took 3 of the 7 wickets that were lost with the excellent catch, including the caught-and-bowl to dismiss Lions captain Haseeb Hameed. In addition, Lakshitha Manasinghe took 2 wickets for 55 runs. 

The Sri Lanka 'A' team, who batted at the beginning of the fourth day, scored another 80 runs for the first innings in the morning. Meanwhile, skipper Nipun Dhananjaya also completed his century.

Dhananjaya had hit 1 six and 18 fours for the 128 runs he had scored in 170 balls. Nipun, who became the first batsman to be dismissed on the day, walked off the field with a team total of 654 runs.

Notably, the first 5 batsmen paved the way for Sri Lanka 'A' to amass tons of runs.

Nishan, who stayed at the wicket for almost 11 hours (655 minutes), was dismissed on the 423rd ball he faced. Nishan was caught by Matthew Fisher off Jack Carson and left the field with 4 sixes and 25 fours.

After Dhananjaya's dismissal, the Sri Lankan innings unexpectedly lost series of wickets.

With the dismissal of Amshi de Silva as the 9th wicket, Sri Lanka 'A' decided to declare the innings with 663 runs for 9 wickets.

CHIEF SCORES: 

SL ‘A’: 136 & 663 for nine (157 Overs) (Nishan Madushka n.o. 241, Oshada Fernando 114, Lakshitha Munasinghe 73, Nipun Dhananjaya n o. 128, Nuwanidu Fernando 80, Liam Patterson White 2/231, Jack Carson 4/173, Tom Abell 1/47)

Eng ‘A’: 467 all out and 221 for seven (48) (Josh Bohannon 57, Jack Haynes 43, Jamie Smith 39 not out, Milan Rathnayake 3/31, Lakshitha 2/55)