South Africa ‘A’ fall prey to Manasinghe’s spin

Wednesday, 14 June 2023 00:20 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Sri Lanka ‘A’s Dilshan Madushanka prized out the top order with three wickets

Matthew Breetzke played a lone hand for South Africa ‘A’ scoring an unbeaten 59

Sri Lanka ‘A’s Lakshitha Manasinghe celebrates his five-wicket haul

First 4-day unofficial cricket test at Pallekele

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Lakshitha Manasinghe, the former off-spinning all-rounder from Nalanda College spun a web around South Africa ‘A’ with figures of 5/19 to bowl them out for 131 on the second day of the first 4-day unofficial cricket test played at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium yesterday.

No sooner had the umpires gone out to the middle to commence Sri Lanka ‘A’ second innings rain disrupted play and washed out any hopes of a resumption. Sri Lanka ‘A’ who scored 325 in their first innings held onto a handy first innings lead of 194 runs with two day’s remaining. 48 overs were lost for the day with rain ending play at 2.52 p.m. However, to catch up on lost time play will commence 15 minutes ahead of schedule at 9.45 a.m. today.

On a surface that was increasingly encouraging spin, Manasinghe found an appreciable turn to trouble the South African batsmen to record his ninth five-fer in first-class cricket. Along with Test left-arm spinner Lasith Embuldeniya (2/61), Manasinghe ran through the South African batting after left-arm seamer Dilshan Madushanka had provided the initial breakthrough with three top order wickets including that of national capped players Keegan Petersen (19) and Tristan Stubbs (0). Madushanka pushed South Africa onto the back foot in the very first over itself by getting through the defences of Jordan Herman (0) off the second ball of the innings so that at one stage they had lost half the side for 66.

One drop batsman Matthew Breetzke tried his best to forge a partnership of sorts but none survived long enough to lend him support. Breetzke remained unbeaten on a defiant 59* off 93 balls (5 fours) when the innings ended.

Scores:

Sri Lanka ‘A’ - 325;

South Africa ‘A’ - 131 (Matthew Breetzke 59*, Dilshan Madushanka 3/31, Lasith Embuldeniya 2/61, Laskshitha Manasinghe 5/19)