Sri Lanka U19s 324 (Kalupahana 104, Caldera 55, French 4-81) and 192 for 4 (Shanmuganathan 73) drew with England U19s 247 (McCann 92, Fonseka 86, Maneesha 6-56)
England Men Under-19s will head to Chelmsford for a series decider after the first Youth Test against Sri Lanka Under-19s ended in a rain-affected draw.
Any hopes of a result had been dulled when the second day was completely washed out, after which the tourists controlled the contest to Earn a deserved 77-run first-innings lead. Sri Lanka U19s then batted out the remainder of the match to be 192 for 4 when stumps was called at 5.30pm.
Surrey Academy paceman Alex French picked up four wickets in the first innings too – when England had reduced Sri Lanka to 37 for 4 – but they were unable to assert that early authority as Kalupahana’s classy century shifted the momentum.
Three late wickets last night meant the Young Lions started the day needing to reassert themselves, but instead they lost 6 for 54 with Maneesha’s skiddy legspin doing the majority of the damage.
Rocky Flintoff added one to his overnight score when he was caught by Nathan Caldera before Maneesha had Jack Carney trapped lbw pushing forward.
Fonseka had been untroubled as he struck 13 boundaries in his 149-ball stay but, like a number of batters yesterday on a slowing pitch, he pushed a drive into the infield and was caught by Sadew Samarasinghe.
Maneesha mopped up the remaining three wickets in back-to-back overs to give Sri Lanka a first-innings lead they would barely have imagined earing after their first-morning collapse.
From there the match meandered towards a draw. Farhan Ahmed picked up his first wicket of the match when he snuck one past Samarsinghe’s forward prod and in the next over Noah Thain held a sharp catch above his head at first slip when Pulindu Perera swiped at Jaydn Denly’s second ball.
