Centuries by Vithanage, Kusal for SL A team….

Fighting centuries by the two left hand batsmen, Kithuruwan Vithanage (136) and Kusal Perera (102 n.o) in their second inning helped Sri Lanka ‘A’ to earn a hard fought draw after trailing by 307 runs against Pakistan ‘A’ in the third and final four day encounter concluded at Dambulla yesterday.
Sri Lanka finally scored 411- for five wickets before the handshakes around 4.00 p.m. when they were leading by 104 with five wickets in hand.
Vithanage scored his first half century in 99 balls and went on to score his next fifty from 56 balls as he smashed ten fours in that fifty while finishing with136 in 218 balls which included 18 fours. The partnership of 114 from 217 balls between Vithanage and skipper Ashan Priyanjan (54) for the 4th wicket faded the fear of a loss from the home camp. The pair started slowly adding just 90 runs in the morning session off 29 overs as they made sure they didn’t lose early wickets on the final day to open the flood gates for the visitors.
After Priyanjan’s departure number six batsman Kusal Perera increased the run rate which took the game away from the visitors as the pair added their century stand in 80 balls and went on to increase it to 155 in 189 balls before Vithanage was dismissed by part time off-spinner Umar Amin.
Vithanage appeared to have misjudged the ball and it appeared the ball hit the bottom of the bat to be caught by Usman Salahuddin at mid-off. Vithanage started walking back to the pavilion even though the on-field umpire did not raise his finger. Vithanage was fortunate as he was dropped on 102 by first slip of the bowling of Mir Hamza and other than that he did not offer any chance for the opposition during his inning.
Perera who missed out scoring a century in the first inning, smashed one six and eight fours in his 46 ball half century and went on to make his fourth century of the tour and second century in the four day series with a fine sweep for boundary. Perera reached the three figure score in 118 balls in the 116th over which also marked the end of the match.
Sri Lanka made 277 in the first inning through the counter attack of Kusal Perera (90) and Nisala Tharaka (76) after being six down for 100. In reply Pakistan made a massive 580-8 before declaring their inning on the third day. Visiting vice captain Umar Amin made 127 while Shan Masood who batted through 500 minutes scored 182 runs to guide Pakistan A .

Scores

Sri Lanka A first inning (273)
Pakistan first inning (580-8)
Sri Lanka A second innings
U.Jayasundara c Adnan Akmal b S. Azam 56
Dhananjaya de Silva lbw T. Khan 37
Madhawa Warnapura c A. Akmal b S. Azam 08
K.Vithanage c U. Salahuddin b U. Amin 136
Ashan Priyanjan c A. Akmal b Mir Hamza 52
Kusal Perera not out 102
Asela Gunaratne not out 09
Extras (1nb, 4w, 3b, 1lb) 09
Total for 5 wickets 116 overs 411
Fall of wickets: 1-88, 2- 101, 3-112, 4- 226, 5-381
Did not bat: Malinda Pushpakumara, Nisala Tharaka, Lahiru Gamage, Dushmantha Chameera
Bowling: Tabish Khan 20-4-83-1, Zia-ul-Haq 16-2-70-0 (4w,1nb), Mir Hamza 21-4-67-1, Shahzad Azam 18-3-63-2, Fawad Alam 28-7-92-0, Umar Amin 12-1-26-1, Usman Salahuddin 1-0-6-0

Man of the match: Kusal Perera