West Indies Academy lose grip on opening day of first ‘Test’

HAM­BAN­TO­TA – An­jala Ban­dara’s su­perb, un­beat­en cen­tu­ry led an im­pres­sive fight­back by Sri Lan­ka Emerg­ing Play­ers against the West In­dies Acad­e­my on the open­ing day of their first un­of­fi­cial ‘Test’ in Sri Lan­ka on Mon­day.

Ban­dara end­ed the day on 126 not out and was the main rea­son the home side fin­ished the day in a com­fort­able po­si­tion of 302 for eight from 77 overs af­ter elect­ing to bat first at the Mahin­da Ra­japak­sha In­ter­na­tion­al Crick­et Sta­di­um.

It was a re­mark­able turn­around for Sri Lan­ka, who at one stage looked set to be bowled out cheap­ly af­ter find­ing them­selves 133 for sev­en.

But Ban­dara, to­geth­er with Shak­thi Udara and Nisala Abeyratne, frus­trat­ed the Acad­e­my bowlers to car­ry their side to a com­pet­i­tive to­tal head­ing in­to the sec­ond day.

Sri Lan­ka were in trou­ble from ear­ly on, with Jo­hann Layne ac­count­ing for the wick­ets of open­er Ravin­du Ras­an­tha and Sa­han Kos­ala, while Amari Goodridge dis­missed Pulin­du Per­era to leave them 26 for three.

Asitha Wan­ni­nayake and Sharu­jan Shan­mu­ganathan re­paired the dam­age dur­ing a 69-run part­ner­ship for the fourth wick­et, but once Layne struck again to re­move the lat­ter for 25, Sri Lan­ka suf­fered a mid­dle-or­der col­lapse.

They then lost the wick­ets of Wan­ni­nayake for 41, be­fore off-spin­ner Ryan Ban­doo re­moved cap­tain Dinu­ra Kalu­pa­hana for five and Tharin­da Nir­mal for just three, to see Sri Lan­ka slip to 133 for sev­en.

How­ev­er, Ban­dara joined forces with Udara to add 60 runs for the eighth wick­et to car­ry Sri Lan­ka close to the 200-mark.

Pac­er Je­di­ah Blades broke the stand by bowl­ing Udara for a pa­tient 13 off 41 balls to give the Acad­e­my hope of bowl­ing out Sri Lan­ka cheap­ly with the score 193 for eight.

But Ban­dara and Abeyratne shared an un­bro­ken stand of 109 runs for the ninth wick­et to com­plete­ly trans­form the con­test.

Ban­dara has so far faced 165 balls and struck 13 fours, while Abeyratne is 38 not out off 69 balls, in­clu­sive of sev­en bound­aries.

Layne has been the Acad­e­my’s best bowler with 3-58, while Ban­doo (2-45) and Blades (2-64) have claimed two wick­ets apiece.

CMC

Sum­marised scores

SRI LAN­KA EMERG­ING PLAY­ERS 302-8 in 77 overs (An­jala Ban­dara 126 not out, Asitha Wan­ni­nayake 41, Nisala Abeyratne 38 not out, Sharu­jan Shan­mu­ganathan 25, Shak­thi Udara 13; Jo­hann Layne 3-58, Ryan Ban­doo 2-45, Je­di­ah Blades 2-64).