Sports
England Under-19 win last over thriller
Rex Clementine
in Worcester
Sri Lanka Under-19 suffered their first defeat on their tour of England when they lost the first one-dayer in the last over at New Road, Worcester on Monday. In a game affected by rain, Sri Lanka’s innings was cut short in the 48th over when they had reached 248 for nine and England were set a revised target of 172 in 24 overs. The hosts lost seven wickets to get there with Jamal Richards who looks like Jofra Archer sealing the win with a boundary in the last over.
Batting on a synthetic pitch, the Sri Lankans struggled to post a decent total. Despite the openers Hasitha Amarasinghe and Abisheak Liyanaarachchi adding 45 runs for the first wicket, the introduction of Fateh Singh saw Sri Lanka slumping to 74 for three as the left-arm spinner dismissed the openers and the team’s best batter Ranuda Somaratna.
Shevon Daniel did well to score a half-century but a Thomas Aspinwall thunderbolt cleaned him up. The Lancastrian has been the standout perfumer on this tour and you sense that it’s only a matter of time before he starts replacing another Lancastrian in the England senior side called Jimmy Anderson. Those are big boots to fill but with his pace and swing, Aspinwall has impressed even the Sri Lankan management.
England openers George Thomas and Ben McKinney added 56 runs for the first wicket in 49 balls as Sri Lanka opened bowling with Traveen Mathews’ spin. Sahan Mihira provided the breakthrough before captain Raveen de Silva delivered some deadly blows.
De Silva dismissed Ross Whitefield for five and then had the presence of mind to run out Matthew Hurst off his own bowling. It wasn’t Mankading but Alex Horton had smashed a straight drive right onto the boot of Hurst and the batsman was hurrying for a single. De Silva picked up the ball after it had deflected off the boot and threw it to the keeper with the non-striker hopping around not able to reach the crease.
Wicketkeeper Horton was in a hurry to finish things off as he reached 49 off 37 balls with four fours and two sixes. De Silva challenged him to take on the longer leg side boundary and Horton took the bait but failed to clear the ropes and was caught at deep mid-wicket.
England needed 48 runs at that stage and it looked Sri Lanka had the game in the bag but Daniel Ibrahim smashed 32 off 21 balls to take England within touching distance. When he was dismissed, they needed two runs in the last over. Sri Lanka opted for their quickest bowler Sahan Mihira instead of testing the tail-enders with spin. It was a gamble and in sports you have to trust your instincts and take them. It didn’t go to plan as Mihira served up a full toss first ball and Jamal smashed it for four to give England a 1-0 lead.