A classy century from Nuwanidu Fernando and an extremely sound bowling spell by Shashika Dulshan, who captured four wickets for 24 runs in 9.3 overs helped Sri Lanka Under 19 to reach the finals of the Under 19 Asia Cup contest, currently being played in Bangladesh.
This victory means, Sri Lanka will meet India on Sunday (12th October) at the Shere Bangla National Stadium in the finals.
Put into bat by the opposition, Sri Lanka had a dangerous start with both openers getting out without scoring. Kamil Mishara stuck two boundaries, but he also was sent back to the pavilion within a quick time and the Lankan score read as 3 for 16. Sri Lanka lost its 4th wicket, when the score was on 42 in 15.5 overs.
It was repair time, as Nuwanidu Fernando and Kalana Perera added 57 runs from around 13 overs. Perera departed for 22, while Fernando continued to his work. Captain Nipun Dananjaya added 27 runs to build another vital partnership with the centurion; to bring the score up to 166. He was out in the 42nd over.
Pasidu Sooriyabandara helped Fernando to build the Lankan tally up to 209 in 50 overs for the loss of 7 wickets. Sooriyabandara added 19 runs from 25 balls, while Man of the Match Nuwanidu Fernando scored 111 runs from 129 balls.
His knock included 8 boundaries and 3 sixes.
Starting the reply, Afghanistan looked solid as the openers put on a 35 run partnership in 12 overs. Riaz Hussan was the first to depart, after making 15 runs from 44 balls. The 2nd wicket partnership helped Afghanistan to reach 84 runs in the 24th over.
Afghan’s top scorer Rahmanullah Gurbas was captured by Shashika Dulshan for 46 runs. Again a brief partnership helped them reach 113 runs in 31.2 overs, before Baseer Khan was out for 27 runs.
From there onwards regular wickets, put Afghanistan out of the contest, as the run rate kept climbing up; due to a very tight bowling act by the Lankan boys.
Afghanistan Under 19 bundled out for 178 runs in 48.3 overs, putting them out of the Asia Cup.
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