Sri Lanka crush Kuwait in U19 Asia Cup opener

Sri Lanka opened their campaign in the ACC Under 19 Asia Cup with a crushing 274 runs win over Kuwait in their Group B match played at Sharjah yesterday.

Winning the toss and batting first Sri Lanka ran up an imposing total of 323-5 with half centuries from the bats of Chamindu Wickramasinghe, Shevon Daniel, Pawan Pathiraja and Ranuda Somaratne.

Openers Wickramasinghe (54 off 57 balls, 5 fours, 1 six) and Shevon Daniel (54 off 65 balls, 4 fours, 1 six) put on a partnership of 91 off 18 overs to lay the foundation for the huge total. Then Pathiraja (86 off 72 balls, 11 fours) and Somaratne (60 off 57 balls, 4 fours, 1 six) added 114 for the fourth wicket to cement it.

Kuwait were all at sea against the spin of skipper Dunith Wellalage (4/2) and Sadisha Rajapaksa and Matheesha Pathirana and were shot out for 49 in 18 overs.

In the other match played yesterday Pakistan scrambled home to a four-wicket win over Afghanistan in a low scoring match. India won the curtain-raiser match of the tournament on Wednesday beating UAE by 154 runs.

Sri Lanka’s next fixture is against Nepal on Sunday.   

Scores:

Sri Lanka (U19) 323-5 (50) (Chamindu Wickramasinghe 54, Shevon Daniel 54, Sadisha Rajapaksa 35, Pawan Pathiraja 86, Ranuda Somaratne 60, Zeeshan Azeem 2/49, Habier Ali 2/50)

Kuwait (U19) 49 (17.3) (Meet Bhavsar 25, Sadisha Rajapaksa 3/4, Matheesha Pathirana 2/7, Dunith Wellalage 4/2)