Lankans beat Shell Academy by 114 runs

ST GEORGE’S: Sri Lanka beat the Shell Cricket Academy Invitational XI by 114 runs in a warm-up match yesterday in Grenada.

The Academy Invitational XI managed a final score of 129 for nine off 50 overs in response to the visitors’ 243 for seven off 50 overs. Sri Lankan captain Marvan Atapattu top scored with 99. The Sri Lankans won the toss and batted first. Romesh Kaluwitharana was the first to go for only 6 runs. He was caught by Floyd Reifer off the bowling of Jerome Taylor. Naveed Nawaz was next, caught by Taylor off the bowling of Carl Simon for 26. After a disappointing start, the Sri Lankans reached 70 for two with their captain pacing nicely. The Shell Cricket Academy Invitational XI missed an easy chance of getting rid of Kumar Sangakkara when he was 12 with a bad miss by Jason Bennett when he could have run out the Sri Lankan middle order batsman quite easily. Sangakkara was eventually caught by Simon off the bowling of Dwayne Bravo for 21 runs.

Mahela Jayawardena and Atapattu put together a good partnership before Jayawardena was caught by Deonarine off the bowling of Bravo for 35. The score was 183 for four when the  partnership was broken. Atapattu was next to go for 99 runs. Since the World Cup in which Sri-Lanka qualified for the semi-finals, they have had to contend with the resignation of  captain Sanath Jayasuriya, the retirement of top batsman Aravinda de Silva and have experienced mixed results in seeking to rebuild their side. Yesterday’s match marked the opening of Sri Lanka’s Caribbean tour which is comprised of three One-Day Internationals and two Tests.  Shell Academy Invitational XI was captained by Reifer of Barbados and included students and graduates from the Grenada-based academy.