VISHAUL CRACKS 161 AS WI ‘A’ AMASS 509/9
Second Unofficial Test
West Indies ‘A’ maintained their dominance as they had Sri Lanka ‘A’ in tatters at the early stages of the innings on 37 for four before the home side recovered to end day two on 128 for four in the second unofficial Test match continued at the Pallekele International Cricket Stadium yesterday.
It was the West Indies right-arm pacies who did the early damage after Vishaul Singh cracked a career best knock of 161. Kemar Roach made the breakthrough with the wicket of Avishka Fernando and then Keon Joseph dealt a double blow for the hosts by grabbing Lahiru Thirimanne and Roshen Silva.
Later, the burly right-arm spinner Rakheem Cornwall put the home team in more trouble when he got rid of Charith Asalanka to have Sri Lanka ‘A’ reeling at 37 for four before Skipper Dimuth Karunaratne joined by Niroshan Dickwella helped them to recover with an unbroken partnership of 91 for the fifth wicket.
Skipper Karunaratne was unbeaten on 66 and Dickwella on 38 but the Sri Lanka ‘A’ side have a long way to go as they are in deficit of another 381 runs to save the match and being asked to follow on.
Earlier in the day, West Indies ‘A’ left-hand batsman Vishaul Singh hit a career best knock of 161 as he batted till Skipper Shanarh Brooks made the declaration. The Sri Lanka ‘A’ bowlers were again made to toil as the West Indies ‘A’ batted for two sessions of play before making a declaration with a massive score of 509 for nine.
Singh who was unbeaten on 81 the previous day made his career best knock in 306 balls that included 16 boundaries and was associated in two valuable partnerships. The first being 54 runs for the sixth wicket with Rajendra Chandrika who came back to the crease having retired on day one due to cramps when he was on 51 and then added another 33 to his tally before falling victim to spinner Jeffery Vandersay for 84 which had nine boundaries.
The second partnership was for the seventh wicket that of 90 runs with Kemar Roach which came to an end with the dismissal of Roach for 39 with the visitors score on 475 for seven.
Gudakesh Moti-kanhai who followed, did not last long being dismissed for nine runs and later West Indies ‘A’ posted their 500 runs before Singh was clean bowled by Charith Asalanka.
Right-arm spinner Charith Asalanka who won the Best Schoolboy Cricketer Award for the second successive year the previous day was the most successful bowler for Sri Lanka ‘A’ celebrating his award with a fourwicket haul.