Sri Lanka A’s Sadeera Samarawickrama won the battle of the captains in a century shootout to leading his side a decisive 6-wicket triumph over Afghanistan A in the Tri Series on Tuesday at the Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi.
Having won the opening game by 45 runs, Sri Lanka faced a tall order of chasing Afghanistan’s 248 for 8 in 50 overs on Tuesday in the face of the host team’s captain Darwish Rasooli’s stirring 155 off 147 driven by 8 sixes and an equal number of boundaries on winning the toss and deciding to take first lease.
But Sri Lanka’s Sadeera Samarawickrama came to the show hammering 129 off 110 balls showcased by 16 boundaries and 2 to the ropes to outdoing his opposite number’s efforts as the Lankans romped to 249 for 4 in 4.3 overs to winning by 51 balls to spare. Opening batsman Lahiru Udara struck an upfront 83-ball 81 hitting 12 boundaries in sharing in a third-wicket 163-run alliance with Samarawickrama after Sri Lanka had lost 2 wickets for 2 runs in 2 overs.
Sri Lanka did make early inroads in the Afghanistan innings with pacer Dilshan Madushanka removing opener Zubaid Akbari for a duck and No.4 Sediqullah Atal for 1 while Shiraz accounted for co-opener Abdul Malik for a duck as the hosts were reeling on 3 for 4 after just 2.5 overs before skipper Rasooli rescued his side with by his marathon knock helped along by Ajaz Ahmad 35 and Ikram Alikhil 32.
Madushanka returned superb figures of 4 for 37 well supported by Mohamed Shiraz 2 for 43.
CHIEF SCORES:
Bangladesh A 248/8 (50 Overs)
(Darwish Rasooli 155, Ijaz Ahmad 35, Ikram Alikhil 32, Dilshan Madushanka 4/37, Mohamed Shiraz 2/43, Dushan Hemantha 1/40)