Dimuth and Bhanuka steer Sri Lanka ‘A’ to victory

Chinthana WASALA

A 132 run for the third wicket partnership between Dimuth Karunaratne and former Sri Lanka under-19 skipper Bhanuka Rajapaksa sealed a convincing six wicket victory for Sri Lanka ‘A’ against the England Lions in the third unofficial limited over match played at Welagedera Stadium in Kurunegala yesterday.

After winning the toss, Englishmen decided to bat and scored 258 for the loss of nine wickets at the batting friendly Welagedera wicket with Jos Buttler scoring a century (119). Leggie Seekkuge Prasanna took three for 32 and Dhanushka Gunathillake captured 3 for 46.

Sri Lanka faced a disaster in the very first delivery they faced, when the opening batsman Dhanushka Gunathillake was out when he was LBW to South African born pace man from Surrey, Jade Dernbach.

Sri Lanka lost Mahela Udawatte for 11 and thereafter Karunaratne and Rajapaksa batted for 23.1 overs to lift the Sri Lankan total. Karunaratne scored 94 and Rajapaksa was the next to go when he was caught by Bairstow off a delivery from Patel when he was on 72. Karunarathne departed when the total was 236.

Then skipper Thilina Kandamby scored 55 not out to guide the team for the first win in the series with 15 deliveries remaining.

England Lions lead the five-match series 2-1.

England Lions: 258 for 9 (Jos Buttler 119, J M Bairstow 31, Seekkuge Prasanna 3 for 32, Dhanushka Gunathilleke 2 for 46)

Sri Lanka A: 263 for 4 (Dimuth Karunaratne 94, Bhanuka Rajapaksa 72, Thilina Kandamby 55 n.o.).