Sri Lanka ‘A’ grab the honours in drawn first ‘test’

 Josh Bohannon and Jack Haynes during their 88-run partnership for the fourth wicket

• Pile up 663-9 in second innings
• Rain - England Lions saviour as they struggle to save match

By Sa’adi Thawfeeq

Sri Lanka ‘A’ who were outplayed on the opening day of the first 4-day unofficial cricket test by England Lions ended the match on a high note grabbing all the honours in the remaining three days of play at the Galle International Cricket Stadium.

The match eventually ended in a draw, with Sri Lanka ‘A’ shot out for 136 in their first innings and trailing England Lions by 331 runs, bouncing back to score a massive 663-9 declared in their second innings.

England Lions left with a target of 333 to chase off 68 overs, had a struggle on their hands to draw the match finishing on 221-7. When rain ended play with 20 overs remaining to be bowled, England required 112 runs and Sri Lanka three wickets for victory.

England suffered an early failure losing the first four wickets for 67 with tall right-arm pacie Milan Ratnayake rattling them claiming three wickets. Josh Bohannon (57 off 86 balls, 7 fours) and Jack Hayes (48 off 38 balls, 3 fours) steadied the ship with a stand of 88 before both fell lbw to Lakshitha Manasinghe. 

At 158-6 and with 32 overs to be bowled England Lions were still in danger of losing the match, even though the pitch now on its fourth day was only marginally helping the bowlers.

However, wicket-keeper/batsman Jamie Smith and Liam Patterson-White ensured there would be no further alarms in the England camp by putting together a face-saving stand of 62. Smith and Patterson-White defied the Lankan bowlers mixing caution with aggression to see their team safely through to a draw. Smith made 39* off 44 balls (5 fours) and Patterson-White was run out for 25 (2 fours, 1 six).     

Sri Lanka ‘A’s second innings recovery was led by in-form opener Nishan Madushka who carved out a magnificent double century (241 off 423 balls, 25 fours, 4 sixes). He shared in two double century partnerships with Oshada Fernando (114) with whom he put on 203 for the first wicket and 219 for the fourth wicket with skipper Nipun Dananjaya who scored a pleasing 128 off 170 balls (18 fours, 1 six).

Once the partnership was broken at 654, the rest of the Sri Lanka ‘A’ batting offered hardly any resistance with six wickets tumbling for nine runs before the closure of the innings. Spinners Jack Carson and Liam Patterson-White who toiled away for 94.1 overs took the bulk of the wickets – seven between them conceding 404 runs.

The second 4-day unofficial test begins at the same venue on 7 February.

Scores: 

Sri Lanka ‘A’ 136 and 663-9 decl. (o/n 580-3) (Nishan Madushka 241, Oshada Fernando 114, Lakshitha Manasinghe 73, Nuwanidu Fernando 80, Nipun Dananjaya 128, Liam Patterson-White 3/231, Jack Carson 4/173)

England Lions 467 and 221-7 (Tom Haines 20, Josh Bohannon 57, Jack Haynes 43, Jamie Smith 39*, Liam Patterson-White 25, Milan Ratnayake 3/31, Lakshitha Manasinghe 2/55)