SL beat SA in Youth 3-Nation final
While their senior Lankans were humble-pied in the first ODI by the hosts, some 750 kilometres away in Port Elizabeth, the Sri Lanka Under-19s showed the meaning of a true fighting spirit by thrashing South Africa Under-19s by 77 runs to clinch the Tri-Nation Tournament at Paarl yesterday.
After ousting Zimbabwe thrice in the round robin stage and being at the receiving end against South Africa thrice, Sri Lanka won the tournament in a low scoring final, which could have gone either way.
Electing to bat first Sri Lanka was aiming for a decent total but lost wickets at regular intervals before being bundled out for 156, but man-of-the-match and man-of-the-series Nipun Ransika did what he was tasked for, by claiming a five-wicket haul, which helped to bowl out South Africa for 79 with 104 deliveries to spare. With yesterday’s five wickets the right-arm fast bowler took his wicket tally to 18 from five games.
Ransika’s five wickets caused an early shock in South Africa’s run chase and with the support of left-arm spinners Hareen Weerasingha and Praveen Jayawickrama, who claimed two wickets each, Sri Lanka were able to record a thrilling win.
Electing to bat, Sri Lanka were put in the defence from the very first boll by the hosts who picked up wickets at regular intervals. Middle-order batsman Ashen Bandara top scored with 33 off 65 balls inclusive of three boundaries, while top batsmen failed to impress. Ruan de Swardt claimed three wickets while Kenan Smith picked two.
Sri Lanka was captained by dashing opener Avishka Fernando, who had a fine run with the bat with knocks of 4, 27n.o., 48, 96, 108 before failing to impress yesterday scored only 9 runs in this inning.
Sri Lanka Under-19s will remain in South Africa to play three Youth ODIs on February 1, 3 and 5 at Oudtshoorn.
Sri Lanka Under-19s 156 all out in 44.5 overs (Krishan Arachchige 15, Sammu Ashan 16, Ashen Bandara 33, Rashmika Dilshan 15, Praveen Jayawickrama 20n.o, Ruan de Swardt 3 for 30, Kenan Smith 2 for 29)
South Africa Under-19s 79 all out in 32.4 overs (Mitchell Van Buuren 15, Jade de Klerk 16, Nipun Ransika 5 for 19, Hareen Weerasingha 2 for 5, Praveen Jayawickrama 2 for 13)