England crumble to spin; SL take insurmountable 3-1 series lead

Pawan Pathiraja and Raveen de Silva put together a partnership of 111 for Sri Lanka in the fourth U19 ODI against England Young Lions at the SSC

The England Young Lions crumbled to spin as they went down by 127 runs to lose the fourth Under-19 ODI to Sri Lanka at the SSC yesterday. Sri Lanka now have a winning 3-1 lead in the five-match series.

England looked to be going very well at 83-2 chasing a target of 244, but the run out of top scorer George Thomas for 61-ball 40 (5 fours) in the 21st over triggered a dramatic collapse as the rest of the batting simply folded up to be bowled out for 117 in 34 overs.

The spinners had a field day with all eight wickets in the day falling to them. Leg-spinning all-rounder Raveen de Silva followed his fine half-century with figures of 3 for 6, and he was ably supported by the rest of the spinners.  

It was the seamers though who had got the wickets for England, with Nathan Barnwell and Benjamin Cliff accounting for five of the seven Sri Lankan wickets to fall.

Sri Lanka’s top order once again failed to deliver, as Sri Lanka fell to 85 for 4 in 19 overs – 39 of those runs coming off the bat of Shevon Daniel.

That Sri Lanka recovered from that early slump was thanks to a 111-run stand between Pawan Pathiraja, who scored a solid 60 off 104 balls (2 fours) and Raveen de Silva (59 off 87 balls, 4 fours, 1 six). De Silva added a further 26 valuable runs with skipper Dunith Wellalage (15) to see Sri Lanka to their final total. The fifth and final U19 ODI will be played on Friday at the same venue. (ST)

Scores:

Sri Lanka (U19) 243-7 (50) (Shevon Daniel 39, Pawan Pathiraja 60, Raveen de Silva 59, Nathan Barnwell 2/39, Benjamin Cliff 3/43)

England Young Lions 117 (33.3) (George Thomas 40, Harry Crawshaw 31, Raveen de Silva 3/6, Matheesha Pathirana 2/8)