Batters prosper in high-scoring draw

Sri Lanka Cricket Development

XI’S first game of their tour of England ended in a lifeless draw following four days of heavy runmaking by both sides.

On a placid surface where bowlers from both teams struggled to make any sort of meaningful impact, the Kent and SLC Development batters feasted; accumulating over 1450 runs over the four days of play for the loss of just 18 wickets.

Day four began with the visitors resuming on their overnight score of 573 for six, and they soon surpassed Kent’s 595 and moved into the lead with Santhush Gunathilake making 58 not out.

Captain Nipun Dananjaya opted to declare with the score having reached 658 for nine, but even the slimmest hopes he may have had that his bowlers could extract something from the deck soon evaporated, as Kent went on to pile up a further 200 runs for the loss of just one wicket.

The game was called off upon opener Marcus O’ Riordan reaching his century with a shot to the ropes.

For the Development XI, Nishan Madushka’s innings anchoring

269 was the clear highlight of the game, while Lasith Croospulle with 136 and Nuwanindu Fernando (99)

On a placid surface where bowlers from both teams struggled to make any sort of meaningful impact, the Kent and SLC Development batters feasted; accumulating over 1450 runs

too made the most of the conditions on offer. With not a single bowler being able to collect more than two wickets in the game across both sides, overly harsh judgement on the performance of the bowling unit would be futile.

SLC Development XI’S next match on tour will be versus Hampshire in a four-day game scheduled to begin on May 13 at Southampton.