Daniel seals series for Sri Lanka with unbeaten 85

Shevon Daniel, who played a match-winning innings of 85 not out for Sri Lanka, plays a shot on the leg side

Shevon Daniel, younger brother of former Sri Lanka Under-19 cricketer Jehan Daniel, has a habit of making it count when the chips are down, and he showed it once again at the Rangiri Dambulla International Cricket Stadium early this week, playing a match-winning knock of 85* off 117 balls (seven fours, one six) to guide Sri Lanka home by three wickets against Bangladesh in the third Under-19 ODI.

With wins by 42 runs and by one run in the first two ODIs of the five-match series, Sri Lanka took an unbeatable series-clinching 3-0 lead. The fourth match of the series will be played on Saturday at the same venue.   

Daniel paced his innings quite beautifully after watching Sri Lanka slide from a strong 89/2 to 122/7 chasing 185. All he needed was someone to stay with him in the middle, and in Wanuja Sahan, one of five changes Sri Lanka made for this match, he found an ideal partner.

Sahan, playing his first Under-19 International shone with both bat and ball. He made a major contribution to the unbroken eighth wicket stand of 66 off 83 balls with Daniel scoring 38 off 53 balls (two fours) to follow his figures of 2/26 with his left-arm leg-spin.

Sahan was put down twice at cover point and at slips before he got into double figures, and those misses proved to be costly for Bangladesh who were striving for a win to keep the series alive.

Sri Lanka lost their way in the run chase. They recovered well from losing their new opening pair Harindu Jayasekera and Ryan Fernando cheaply to be 89/2, but the dismissal of in-form batsman Pawan Pathiraja for 31 triggered a middle order collapse that saw Sri Lanka lose four wickets for seven runs to slump to 96/6.

Bangladesh, already trailing 0-2 in the series, needed a good beginning to put a competitive score on the board to give their bowlers a chance to bowl Sri Lanka out in a must-win game for them. They began on a positive note, winning the toss and batting first for the first time in the series in the hope of compiling a competitive total and putting the Sri Lankans under pressure.  

Scores:

Bangladesh (U-19) 184 (49.3) (Ifthikar Hossain 25, Aich Mollah 23, Ahosan Habib 33, Ashikur Zaman 54, Naimur Rohman 27, Vinuja Ranpul 3/32, Wanuja Sahan 2/26, Raveen de Silva 3/38) lost to Sri Lanka (U-19) 188-7 (46.4) (Shevon Daniel 85*, Pawan Pathiraja 31, Wanuja Sahan 38*, Mushfik Hasan 3/46, Ahosan Habib 2/24) by three wickets.

Sri Lanka fast bowler Vinuja Ranpul made early inroads into the Bangladesh batting

Sri Lanka leg-spinner Raveen de Silva took three wickets in the middle overs

Bangladesh’s Ashikur Zaman celebrates his half-century