Dilshan in rollicking form, blasts century and retires

Elmo Rodrigopulle reporting from Australia

The Sri Lankan batsmen gained good batting practice when they scored for at close on the second day of the three day game in reply to the Chairman’s X1 score of 439 for 6 declared at the Manuka Oval, here today.

Opener Tillekeratne Dilshan 102 retired, Dimuth Karunaratne 40, Kumar Sangakkara 55, Mahela Jayawardene 36 and Prasanna Jayawardene and Dinesh Chandimal unbeaten on 24 and 12 respectively.

The Chairman’s X1 batsmen led by Scott Henry who toyed with the Sri Lanka attack on h first day running up a massive 390 for 4, continued their innings on day two and lost two wickets before closing their innings on 439 for 6. Left hander Scott Henry not out on 172, completed a well deserved double century 207 not out, when Usman Khawja declared the Chairman X1 innings. Scott batted for 427 minutes, hit 28 fours, two sixes and faced 283 balls.

His was an innings full of concentration and discipline. He did not rush it, but played correct cricket waiting for the loose ball to hit to the boundary. He played some exquisite cover and straight drives that sped to the boundary.

In the session the home team lost two wickets that of Travis Head without adding to his overnight score of 35 at 392 and Sam Whiteman for 4 at 402. Head tried to pull Dhammika Prasad and was caught at fine leg by Chanaka Welegdera.

Prasad who was bowling with a lot of fire and worrying the batsmen, then got Whiteman to mistime a drive and hit a return catch to him for 4. The home team added 49 in 45 minutes before applying the closure.

It was encouraging to see Prasad running in delivering at good speed and getting bounce that was disconcerting to the batsmen. He bowled a vicious bouncer the whizzed past the heads of the ducking batsmen.

He got the two wickets to fall and returned figures of 2 for 128. Shamindra Eranaga who fell on his delivery stride on day one, suffered a slight strain on his right wrist and did not bowl. According to Manager Charith Senenayake there is no cause for alarm on the Eranga injury.

With Prasad conceding 128 runs, the other Sri Lankan bowlers too went for runs. Suraj Randiv 1 for 131, Chanaka Welegedera 1 for 93 and Nuwan Pradeep 1 for 53. Eranga had 1 for 22.

The Sri Lankan openers in the 65 minutes batting before lunch made 60 for no loss with Dimuth Karunaratne on 22 and Tillekeratne Dilshan on 35. The openers settled down and batted confidently against an attack that lacked sting. After lunch Karunaratne and Dilshan put on another 45 runs before Karunatratne on 40 attempted to loft bowler Ashton Turner over mid on and gave Marcus Harris an easy catch.

Karunaratne played straight, driving stylishly on either side of the wicket. He hit 6 fours and batted for 136 minutes facing 96 balls. With his senior partner Dilshan he put on 105 in 121 minutes in 196 balls. Dilshan playing freely and excelling in the drive, the cut and the pull then raced to a century.

When on 99 he pushed a ball to mid wicket and scampered a single to go to three figures. His century came in 183 minutes, in 148 balls and hit 15 fours. At tea he was on 101 and retired. Kumara Sangakkara was on 10 with the score on 153 for one. Manuka Oval, Canberra, Friday.