Windies U-19s hit back in Lanka

COLOMBO: Xavier Marshall and Assad Fudadin hit half-centuries and then fast bowler Lionel Baker snared four wickets to help Young West Indies beat Young Sri Lanka by 29 runs in their one-day practice cricket match at the Colombo Cricket Club Ground yesterday.

Marshall top-scored with 61 off 63 balls and Fudadin hit 57 from 93 balls to lead YWI to 199 all out from 47.3 overs then Baker ran through the Sri Lankans lower order to take four for 19 from 8.3 overs to send the home team crashing for 170 in 46.3 overs. Both teams are preparing for the ICC Youth World Cup in Bangladesh next month, where they will play in separate groups in the preliminary stages of the competition that has attracted 16 teams. “We are very happy about today’s performance it was the best tonic we could have had,” YWI manager Roland Sampath told CMC Radio Sports. “Last match, we did not play as we should have, but we came out, played positive cricket, exciting, aggressive cricket and we came out winners at the end,” he said.

Marshall and Fudadin shared 76 for the third wicket after Manoj Chanaka removed Tishan Maraj and Kirk Edwards in the space of three balls in the sixth over on his way to taking five wickets for 46 runs from 9.3 overs. Marshall was eventually adjudged leg before wicket in the 17th over after hitting nine fours. But a stand of 61 between Fudadin and YWI captain Denesh Ramdin, who scored 40 from 43 balls, continued to exert pressure on the Sri Lankans.  When Ramdin was lbw to Mohamed Maharoof, his opposite number, in the 31st over, the Sri Lankans again cruelly exposed the fragile nature of the YWI batting by removing the last six batsmen for 35 runs.

YSL lost Upul Tharanga in the fourth over when he was caught close to the wicket off Lendl Simmons for seven. After top-scorer Daminda Kularatne and Nadeera Navela added 45 for the second wicket, the YWI got wickets at a regular rate with Baker removing Maharoof, Kaushal Silva, Kosala Kulasekera and Manoj Chanaka to hasten the end.