A very run heavy game between England and Sri Lanka Under 19s saw the tourists pip the young Englishmen with a thrilling chase in the dying dregs of the final day.
The game was very metronomic throughout. Practically one innings
per day and one century per team. First up was Lancashire’s George Bell who got
107 in the first innings. He and Durham’s Ross Whitfield put on an impressive
185 run third wicket partnership, however the rest of the established batters
all got a start but did not kick on. Bell’s century (and doesn’t it feel good
to say that again) came in a mere 88 balls. Bell-ball perhaps? England were all out towards the end of Day
One.
Day Two was dominated by the batting heroics of Asith
Wanninayake. The young Kurunegala batter batted grittily all day long on Day Two
and went to stumps on 132* off 314 balls. Gallingly (or maybe Galle-ingly) he
was removed for the gain of no run on the morning of Day Three, however the
tail held on and Sri Lanka managed to close on 407 – a lead of 20.
Ross Whitfield then added to his impressive haul of 86 in
the first dig to then get a century of his own in England’s second innings –
this was not as quick as Bell’s on the first day but a strike rate of 82.08 is
a decent lick. Again, the scores around him were not as impressive and England
could only muster 292, which set Sri Lanka a target of 273.
England would have been confident of the win at 48-4 and
then again at 95-8 but Ranuda Somarathne decided to fight fire with fire and got
a more than run a ball century for Sri Lanka to close it out with minutes left
in the day’s play.
A thoroughly entertaining 4 days 0 with another one
scheduled for Derby, starting on Sunday.
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