Sri Lanka win U-19 Cricket World Cup Plate despite nervy finish

• Sri Lankan openers Boyagoda, Lakshan put on a double-century stand to set up victory for Sri Lankan U19s against West Indies

www.icc-cricket.com: Openers Hasitha Boyagoda and Dhananjaya Lakshan featured in a double-century stand that helped Sri Lanka defeat the Windies by three wickets in the Plate championship final of the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup in Christchurch.

The 213-run partnership between Boyagoda (116, 124b, 17x4,1x6) and Lakshan (98, 119b, 12x4, 1x6) had put Sri Lanka in a position of strength to overtake the Windies’ total of 254 for five but a batting collapse made things difficult for the 2000 finalists and they ultimately won with only two balls to spare. 

In the Super League, Bangladesh defeated England by five wickets in the play-off semifinal for fifth place to set up a match with South Africa on Wednesday, 31 January in Queenstown. The winner of Wednesday’s match will finish fifth in the tournament. England will next play New Zealand to decide the seventh place a day earlier on 30 January in Queenstown.

The Windies scored a competitive 254 for five after being put in to bat. Alick Athanaze continued his fine form with an unbeaten run-a-ball 110 (5x4, 2x6) which enabled him to finish the tournament with 418 runs, the second most by any Windies player at a single U19 Cricket World Cup after Donovan Pagon (421 in 2002). Brad Barnes (37 not out) and Bharat Yadram (31) were the other main contributors to the total for the 2016 Super League champion side. 

Sri Lanka seemed to be coasting home after a fine opening stand between Boyagoda and Lakshan that had taken the team to within 37 runs of victory with 12 overs to go. But some quick wickets including a couple of run-out dismissals, saw the team lose seven wickets for only 31 runs before scraping through to 255 for seven in 49.4 overs. 

Sri Lanka captain Kamindu Mendis said they were happy with the Plate championship win after failing to make the Super League: “We kept them under 260 and after that we put on a big partnership so that we could win easily. Unfortunately, our middle-order batsmen fell very quickly because I think we relaxed a bit. It became a very tight situation but we managed it well in the end.”

Windies captain Emmanuel Stewart said he was happy that the team fought back and also praised Athanaze: “We wanted to put up a good fight and give our best. It was our last time as a group as most of us will be going to the next level now so we wanted to enjoy the moment. Alick is a brilliant player, he is one for the future. 

Chief Scores: Sri Lanka 255/7 (Boyagoda 116, Lakshan 98) beat West Indies 254/5 (Athanaze 110) by three wickets with two balls remaining.