Bandara's career best effort inspires Lankan 'A' batsmen

by Sa'adi Thawfeeq

It took a magnificent spell of leg-spin and googly bowling from Malinga Bandara to inspire the Sri Lankan batsmen into playing to their potential in the second 4-day unofficial cricket test against England 'A' at the NCC grounds yesterday.

Bandara took a career best eight wickets for 49 runs off 23.2 overs to spin out England 'A' for 157 in reply to Sri Lanka 'A's first innings of 145.

By stumps on the second day, Sri Lanka 'A' had wiped out the small deficit of 12 runs and progressed to 211 for five wickets in their second innings with Colts opener Shantha Kalavitigoda improving on his first innings top score of 39 with a quality innings of 83. It has so far proved to be the cornerstone on which Sri Lanka 'A' has built their second innings on and given them a useful overall lead of 199.

With two more days to go there is still a lot of cricket left and the game could go either way although at this point of time the odds are slightly in favour of the home team as England 'A' will have to bat last on a wearing pitch. England 'A's last five wickets lasted for 48 minutes yesterday as Bandara spun a web around them with a spell of five for 19 off 6.2 overs.

Skipper Mubarak excelled himself at slip and leg slip to snap up five catches all off Bandara's bowling. The only wicket to elude him was that of top scorer Owais Shah who was last out for 50 caught on the long-off boundary by Wijekoon. It would have been six out of six for Mubarak had he not dropped Shah at 23 on the first day. Shah batted for 129 minutes and hit five fours and two sixes. England added 39 runs for the last five wickets off 13.2 overs.

Bandara's performance improved on his previous best effort of seven for 44 for NCC against Singha SC at this same venue six years ago. Bandara has since turned out for Tamil Union and from last season for Galle CC.

What had been lacking in Sri Lanka 'A's disappointing batting performances before yesterday was that none of the batsmen were able to forge any big partnerships. Kalavitigoda's near four-hour vigil at the crease produced two good partnerships for the second and third wickets. Wijekoon (21) helped him add exactly 50 and then Polonowita (37), a further 84 in 94 minutes.

When a hundred was on the cards Kalavitigoda who had batted with great patience till then, paid the price for being a little bit extravagant. Having cracked the previous ball from Bell for four to the cover boundary he went for another hit and holed out to extra cover. Kalavitigoda faced 177 balls and struck 10 fours.

Kandamby failed again, but Mubarak found a useful partner in Jayawardene and the two forged a partnership for the sixth wicket, which has so far produced 38 runs.

SRI LANKA ‘A’ - 1ST INNINGS 145 
ENGLAND ‘A’ - 1ST INNINGS
(Overnight 118-5)

V.S. Solanki c and b Ranjith		15 
A.N. Cook c Mubarak b Bandara 		27
I.R. Bell st Jayawardene b Mohamed 	31
O.A. Shah c Wijekoon b Bandara		50
M.J. Powell c Mubarak b Bandara		6
R. Clarke c Mubarak b Bandara 		1
R.K.J. Dawson c Jayawardene b Bandara 	0
M.J. Prior c Mubarak b Bandara 		0
G.P. Swann c Mubarak b Bandara 		14
P.J. Franks c Kalavitigoda b Bandara 	2
S.I. Mahmood not out 			0

Extras (lb-3, nb-7, w-1)           	 	11 

TOTAL (all out, 57.2 overs, 210 mins)	157

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-27, 2-77, 3-91, 4-97, 5-112, 6-188, 7-118, 
8-144, 9-146, 10-157.

BOWLING: Ranjith 7-1-24-1 (3nb), Wijekoon 5-0-19-0 (2nb), 
Bandara 23.2-8-49-8, Thushara 4-1-17-0 (1w, 2nb), 
Mohamed 17-5-39-1, Mubarak 1-0-6-0.

SRI LANKA ‘A’ - 1ST INNINGS

S. Kalavitigoda c Clarke b Bell		83
G.I. Daniel b Clarke 			9
M.R.G. Wijekoon c Clarke b Swann 	21
A.S. Polonowita c Prior b Bell		37
J. Mubarak not out 			13
S.H.T. Kandamby b Dawson		3
H.A.P.W. Jayawardene not out 		31

Extras (lb-1, nb-6, w-7) 		14

TOTAL (5 wkts at close, 78 overs, 301 mins)  211

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-17, 2-67, 3-151, 4-170, 5-173.

BOWLING: Mahmood 13-3-39-0 (1w), Clarke 8-2-15-1 (5w), 
Franks 4-0-14-0 (1w, 3nb), Bell 10-3-26-2 (1nb), Swann 23-6-60-1, 
Davidson 16-3-35-1 (1nb), Solanki 2-0-8-0, Shah 2-0-13-0 (1nb).