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| Mahindian Dinura Kalupahana scored 49 runs and took two wickets for Sri Lanka (U19) against Bangladesh (U19) |
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| Sri Lanka U19 Team Manager Jayantha Seneviratne
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By Sa’adi Thawfeeq
It’s not only the senior cricket team that is struggling to win matches in the white ball format, but even the Sri Lanka Under19 cricketers are not having a good outing in the ongoing Tri-Nations Under19 tournament in Abu Dhabi.
On Sunday, they lost to Bangladesh by five wickets to suffer their second straight defeat in the tournament which has now left them in danger of failing to qualify for the final.
Sri Lanka managed only 215 in 48 overs after electing to bat first, and Bangladesh passed that total scoring 217-5 to win with 13 balls to spare. Sri Lanka’s batting was undone by the three Bangladesh seamers who creamed off the top order to reduce them to 61-5 before the late order rebuilt the innings. Sri Lanka’s last five wickets added 154 runs with Mahindian Dinura Kalupahana contributing a solid 49 off 82 balls (3 fours, 1 six) and Malsha Tharupathi 46 off 37 balls (2 fours, 3 sixes), and Hiran Jayasundara (35) and Vishwa Rajapaksa (25).
Following an opening stand of 66 off 44 balls, Bangladesh didn’t have any difficulty in surpassing Sri Lanka’s total with opener Jisham Alam making a rapid 62 off 32 balls (6 fours, 4 sixes). Kalupahana followed his good contribution with the bat by capturing two wickets for 41 runs with his medium-pace. With this fixture Bangladesh complete their round robin league matches with four points from four matches.
Afghanistan heads the standings also with four points but from three matches. Sri Lanka are third with two points from three matches.
The final match of the league round robin round is between Sri Lanka and Afghanistan at Tolerance Oval today. If Sri Lanka are to qualify for the final they must beat Afghanistan. In their first meeting of the league round Sri Lanka lost to Afghanistan by 62 runs. What went wrong for Sri Lanka in that game was that they allowed Afghanistan to rattle up the highest total of the tournament so far 298.
Sri Lanka opened their campaign on a positive note with a five-wicket win over Bangladesh, but lost the next two games to Afghanistan and Bangladesh (return match). Sri Lanka’s problems in their two losses have been their batting that has not lasted the full quota of 50 overs. They were bowled out in 40.5 overs against Afghanistan and in 48 overs against Bangladesh.
Sri Lanka Team Manager Jayantha Seneviratne said that if the top order bats properly this problem would not arise.
“We have very small mistakes to correct, you don’t have to make any major adjustments. The top order batting has not put enough runs on the board. We have the spinners to stop the opposition. You cannot contain a side when you score only 215. Yesterday (Sunday) we lost to Bangladesh because we lost four wickets cheaply in the first 10 overs. It was bad batting,” said Seneviratne, a former Sri Lanka cricketer.
“The wickets are very true, plumb and a batting paradise. We have not lasted 50 overs because we have lost 4-5 wickets in the first 10-20 overs. How is it that our late order and tail-enders have batted well? Whatever total we have achieved has been from the late order batters.”
“Actually we have a very good batting line-up, but what has unsettled our batsmen is the fast bowlers that Afghanistan and Bangladesh have. They have a very good line up. Bangladesh were all bowled out 75 in the opening match because of the Afghanistan fast bowlers, one of whom (Yama Arab) took four wickets against us.”
What is in Sri Lanka’s favour is that they have a better net run rate than Bangladesh and a win over Afghanistan will see them in the final. Afghanistan (1.588) have a superior run rate over Sri Lanka (-0.292) and Bangladesh (-0.860).
“We are trying our best to win and qualify. Even the first match with Afghanistan we did quite well although we lost,” said Seneviratne.
Scores
