Sri Lanka 'A' struggle - 69 for 2
 

BY CHRIS Dhambarage

THE touring New Zealand 'A' team took the initiative on day two of the rain hit second four day unofficial test match against Sri Lanka 'A' which commenced at the Colts CC grounds, Havelock Park yesterday.

After the entire opening day's play was washed out due to heavy rain the match eventually got underway at 1.30 p.m but Sri Lanka 'A' put into bat reached an unimpressive 69 for 2 from 26 overs when another heavy shower brought an end to the day's proceedings at 3.20 p.m.

Sri Lanka 'A' suffered an early setback when they lost their captain Avishka Gunawardena in the fifth ball of the innings. Paceman Chris Martin did well to exploit the conditions to good effect while troubling almost all the batsmen with a great amount of swing and pace.

Martin was again successful in his third over when he had the promising Upul Tharanga slashing outside the off stump before Mathew Sinclair held on to a good catch while fielding at second slip.

Sri Lanka 'A' had slumped to 32 for 2 at that stage and were really struggling to build up a good partnership against some hostile bowling.

Jeewan Mendis who replaced Harsha Vithana from the first test squad joined opener Ian Daniel and the pair steadied the innings with some purposeful batting. Daniel looked quite confident at the crease and already he has struck two delightful fours in addition to two sixes off Paul Wiseman.

Sri Lanka 'A' also brought in Kaushal Lokuarachchi while leaving out leg spinner Malinga Bandara who went wicketless in both innings in the first four day unofficial test match which they lost by three wickets at the Asgiriya Stadium in Kandy last week.

SRI LANKA ‘A’ 1ST INNINGS

Avishka Gunawardena lbw b C. Martin 	 0
Ian Daniel not out 			35 
Upul Tharanga c Sinclair b C. Martin 	18
Jeevan Mendis not out 			 7
Extras (3b, 1nb, 5w) 			 9
TOTAL for 2 wickets 			69

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-0, 2-32
BOWLING: C. Martin 7-1-29-2, W. McSkimming 7-3-15-0, 
C. Harris 6-4-3-0, P. Wiseman 6-1-19-0.