Young Sri Lanka crush Windies youths

COLOMBO: Young West Indies lost the second match on their preparatory tour of Sri Lanka when that nation’s Under-19 side hammered them by nine wickets at the Nondescripts Cricket Club Ground yesterday.

Choosing to bat, YWI, in the final stages of preparation for the ICC Youth World Cup in Bangladesh next month, were bowled out for a modest 106 from 37.3 overs and then saw the YSL blast their way to victory on 108 for one in 21.2 overs. Zaheer Khan hit five fours and one six in the top score of 42 not out from 40 balls for YWI, whose batting was destroyed by off-spin bowler Mohamed Suraj with four wickets for 15 runs from 10 overs and YSL captain Mohammed Maharoof with three for 14 from nine overs. After Lionel Baker had Daminda Kularatne caught behind for one in the second over, opening batsman Upul Tharanga smote a dozen fours in an undefeated 75 from 68 balls to lead the way for YSL and shared 97, unbroken, for the second wicket with Nadeera Navela, who made 26.

YWI suffered an early setback when Maharoof had Xavier Marshall leg before wicket for nought with the third ball of the innings and never recovered from their unstable start with Lendl Simmons being caught off Maharoof for two in the fifth over. Two wickets in the space of six deliveries slowed the YWI even further. Tishan Maraj was caught off medium-fast bowler Manoj Chanaka for 18 and Maharoof bowled captain Denesh Ramdin for nought to leave the visitors on 37 for four in the 13th over. YSL made sure there would be no middle-order heroics when they removed the next four wickets for 25 runs in the space of eight overs. Jonathan Augustus, Liam Sebastien, Assad Fudadin and Mervyn Matthew all fell to Suraj before the last two wickets of Rishi Bachan and Lionel Baker were taken cheaply. The two teams play the second in a four-match series tomorrow before YWI face Young Ireland, Young Papua New Guinea and Young Pakistan in the group stages of the ICC World Cup.