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| Thursday, 25 September 2003 |
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Sri Lanka trounce UAE The curtain raiser of the inaugural WICF Challenger Cup 2003 got off to a great start when India 'A' and UAE 'A' battled it out. India 'A' winning the toss got off to a disastrous start being restricted to one run after eight overs. However, some steady batting by the latter batsmen helped India to a reasonable 60 runs off their 16 overs. The bowler who did the most damage was UAE's Mohammed Riyaz who had exceptional figures of 6 for minus 22. Vivek Yadav (20), Sarvpreet Singh (18) & Rohit Chauhan (18) batted well for India. UAE in reply moved along quite well until the 2nd pair of Mohammed Faisal & Mohammed Riyaz, who struggled to muster only one run . However, a good 30 run partnership for the 3rd pair between Mukthar Sayed (13) Saquib Nazir (17) saw the UAE through. Rajesh Gitimayum (4 for minus 8) & Shanthamoorthy Sengeni (2 for minus 1) bowled best for India. The second match of the day saw the visiting Indian team beaten convincingly by a disciplined Sri Lankan Development Squad by 97 runs. Vinod Samarawickrama, the skipper, had a good day firstly by winning the toss (and electing to bat) and a fantastic all-round performance scoring 17 runs and capturing 5 for minus 13. The Lankan batsmen obliged by running up a total of 106 off their 16 overs, with K. Kamal (23), Sachindra Gonaduwa (17) making useful contributions. For India Nitesh Bharati bowled well with figures of 3 for minus 7 with Nikhil Mishra supporting him with 2 for 12. The Indians never looked like even getting close to their target and struggled right throughout with the exception of the 2nd batting pair of Nikhil Mishra (11) & Rohit Pandey (14) who shared a good partnership. The Sri Lankan bowling was immaculate with skipper Vinod Samarawickrama leading the way with 5 for minus 13 ably supported by Niranjan Rajapakse (4 for minus 9), Manoj Fernando (3 for minus 11) and Sachindra Gonaduwa (3 for minus 9) to restrict the Indians to 9 runs. The last match of the day took place between the Sri Lankan Indoor Cricketers (who are just after a Series win against the South Africans) & UAE. It was a great treat to watch the skilful Lankans who made the UAE look like a very ordinary & immature outfit. Incidentally, Indoor Cricket has been in existence in the UAE for around 6 years and they possess a five court fully air-conditioned center. Although Indoor cricket has been played for just over 2 1/2 years, the Sri Lankans showed how much they progressed by taking the sport to a very high standard. Winning the toss, Sri Lankan skipper Asela Pathirana invited the UAE to bat first and with the exception of Abdulla Mohammed (25) and Kahif Nisar (7) all other UAE batsmen had minus scores against their names. The Sri Lankan bowling was exceptional with all their bowlers ending up with good performances. Thushendra Zoysa (5/-22), Dilshan Witharana (4/-9), Tharindu Mendis (3/-2), Chrishantha Peiris (4/0), Roshan Weerasinghe (3/-3) and Sanjeewa Jayaratne (2/-1 destroyed the UAE batsmen who eventually made minus 2 off their 16 overs. Sri Lanka in reply piled on the runs to get 151 off their 16 overs, with Sanjeewa Jayaratne (39, three sixes), Asela Pathirana (28, one six), Chrishantha Peiris (23, one six), & Thushendra Zoysa (22, two sixes) doing the bulk of the scoring. Murtaza was the only UAE bowler who had a respectable figure of 5 for 4. |
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