Sri Lanka lose to Afghanistan

Sri Lanka cricket received the rudest shock when lowly placed Afganistan beat them by 3 wickets in their opening game of the ACC Under 19 Cricket encounter at Abu Dhabi yesterday.

Sri Lanka Under 19 winning the toss and opting to bat were able to muster only 191 for 9 in their 50 overs. Openers Sadeera Smarawickream (31) and H.Dumind (61) with seven fours put on 64 runs for the first wicket. Priyamal Perera who had a good match with an unbeaten 47 and also taking two wickets helped the side to reach their final score of 191 for 9. For Afganistan Zia-Ul-Rehman bowled best taking 5 for 33.

Afganistan in their turn batted sensibly and most of theier top order batsmen contributing steadily towards the total. Shahidullah (47) Younas Ahamadzai (36) and an unbeaten 28 by skipper Nazir Ahamadzai saw them pass the Sri Lankan total for the loss of seven wickets.

Brief scores.

Sri Lanka Under 19 - 191 for 9 in 50 overs ( H.Dumindu 61, Sadeera Samaerawickrema 31, Kusal Mendis 12, Priyamal Perera 47 n.o, S.A.N.J.Fernando 19, Zia -Ul.- Rehman 5 for 33)

Afganistan Under 19 - 192 for 7 in 47.3 overs ( Shahidullah 47, Abdul Mangal 13, Younas Ahamadzai 36, Muslim Munza 29, Nasir Ahamadzai 28 n.o, Sharafuddin Asraf 15 n.o , Priyamal Perera 2 for 37)