Pasindu Sooriyabandara stroked a brilliant unbeaten knock of 84 in 109 balls as Sri Lanka ‘ A ‘ recorded a four wicket win over Afghanistan ‘A’ in their third unofficial ODI played at Mahinda Rajapaksa International cricket stadium yesterday.
It was a superb win by Sri Lanka’ A’ led by Nishan Madushka for the first time to get back to back third win to record series victory with two matches to spare while former Royal skipper Pasindu Sooriyabandara played his first match of the series carried out his bat to end the game with a winning boundary against Zia-ur -Rehman in third ball of the 37 th over.
Afganistan ‘A’ won the toss and elected to bat first and they managed to get 185 all out in 41.2 overs and Sri Lanka ‘A’ gave a good batting display to clinch the series in great style .
In fact Sri Lanka ‘A ‘ paceman Mohamed Shiraz made an early breakthrough to take three quick wickets and Afghans were struggling at 63 for 3 wickets in 8.6 overs while openers Riaz Hassan ( 9) , Zubaid Akbari ( 16) and Darwish Rasool ( 25) were back in the pavilion with Shiraz ‘ fine bowling .
Shahidullah was unfortunately run out for 25 and Sonal Dinusha made good fielding effort to run out the middle order batter in 22nd over . When the spinners introduced to the attack off spinner Kamil Mishara,leg spinners Wanuja Sahan,Dushan Hementha and Sonal Dinusha Afghan middle
order batters were under pressure and they were all out with 8.4 overs to spare.
Mohamed Shiraz was the most successful bowler taking 3 for 31 in his six over spell while Sonal Dinusha and Dushan Hementha took two wickets apiece .
Sri Lanka’ A ‘ chasing a target of 186 but openers skipper Nishan Madushka and Lahiru Udara were unable to give a good start and Udara was first to out scoring 4 on 2 balls and paceman Bilal Sami made early breakthrough.The inform batter Kamil Mishara hit a boundary but he couldn’t
stay long time bowled by Sami and Sri Lanka ‘ A’ were 27 for 2 wickets after 2.1 overs .Skipper Madushanka played brisk innings of 20 in 24 balls with 4 boundaries Pasindu Sooriyabandara together with Sonal Dinusha repaired the innings with confidence while the pair were involved in an 83 run sixth wicket partnership which turned the game in their favour Sooriyabandara the elegant right hander hit 9 fours for his match winning knock of 84 while Dinusha played a good supporting role scoring 35 in 64 balls and Sri Lanka ‘ A ’ were 186 for 6 wickets in 37.3 overs to clinch victory with 4 wickets in hand .
Bilal Sami took 2 for 43 while Muhammad Saleem finished 3 for 32 in his ten over spell. Two teams will meet in the fourth ODI tomorrow ) at the same venue, commening at 10 am .
Chief scores
Afghanistan ‘ A ‘ 185 all out in 41.2 overs Zubaid Akbari 16, Darwish Rasool 25, Shahidullah 23, Bilal Ahmed 14, Zia -ur- Rehman 36 , Mohammed Saleem 13,Mohamed Shiraz 3/31,Chamindu Wijesinghe 1/20,Kamil Mishara 1/6,Sonal Dinusha 2/29,Dushan Hementha 2/29
Sri Lanka ‘ A ‘ 186 for 6 wickets in 37.3 overs, Nishan Madushka 20, Pasindu Sooriyabandara 84*,Pavan Ratnayake 13,Sonal Dinusha 35,Bilal Sami 2/43,Mohammed Saleem 3/32,Zia -ur- Rehman 1/42
Dhammika Ratnaweera reporting from Hambantota