(UTV|COLOMBO) – Sri Lanka’s under 19 cricketers led by Nipun Dananjaya received a tremendous boost ahead of the ICC Under 19 Cricket World Cup in January when they won the Tri-Nation Under 19 tournament beating England under 19 by 77 runs in the final played at Coolidge Cricket Ground, Antigua on Saturday.
Match winner for Sri Lanka was left-handed opener Navod Paranavithana who stroked a brilliant century – 108 off 119 balls inclusive of 16 fours that laid the foundation for his team’s challenging total of 265-9 after choosing to bat first.
England found the target too stiff and were dismissed for 188 off 43.1 overs to hand to Sri Lanka a convincing win.
Sri Lanka had come to the final having lost their last three league matches on the trot twice to England and once to host West Indies, the third team in the competition.
However the Lankans raised their game where it mattered and came up with a noteworthy performance to outplay England who came to the final as firm favourites on the back of their victories over Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka were given a tremendous start by their left-handed openers Paranavithana and Kamil Mishara who posted 124 in 25 overs. Mishara’s contribution in the stand was an aggressive 69 off 84 balls (7 fours, 1 six)
Sri Lanka at one stage looked good enough to go past the 300-run mark when they were 203-3 in the 41st over. But the dismissal of Man of the Match Paranavithana led to a slump when six wickets fell for 27 runs, but Sri Lanka had enough runs on the board for their bowlers to launch an assault on the English batsmen.
England skipper and opening bowler George Balderson and his new ball partner Blake Cullen were the pick of the bowlers taking seven wickets between them.
England were soon pushed onto the backfoot when they began their run chase in pursuit of 266 and lost both openers with their score at 10. Jordan Cox (77) and Jack Haynes (32) set about repairing the early damage to the innings with a partnership of 64. But once the pair was separated they slumped to 77-4 before another stand of 67 developed between Cox and Lewis Goldsworthy (31).
Paranavithana removed both batsmen with his slow left-arm medium deliveries to cap a fine all-round performance as England lost their last six wickets for 42 runs to be all out for 188.
Leg-spinner Kavindu Nadeeshan continuing his good run in the tournament came up with another fine haul of three wickets.
(DN)
[alert color=”faebcc” icon=”fa-commenting”]Keeping up to date with breaking news while you are on the move is now simple with UTV Alerts [textmarker color=”8a6d3b”]Type REG UTV and send to 77000[/textmarker] on your Dialog, Airtel, or Hutch mobile connection[/alert]
