Jayasundera shows promise as opener

Udara Jayasundera proved himself as an opener as he struck a half century (63) in Sri Lanka's three-day warm-up match against the New Zealand Board President's X1 which ended in a draw at Queenstown yesterday.

Jayasundera, who scored 21 batting at Number Three in the first innings, struck nine fours in reaching his 63 after he lost his opening partner Kusal Mendis for 2.

Mendis opening the batting failed in the first innings as well leaving Dimuth Karunaratne to make 93.

But Kithuruwan Vithanage who failed in the first innings made amends by scoring 61 in the second essay as did skipper Angelo Mathews who chipped in with an unbeaten 54.

The first Test between New Zealand and Sri Lanka starts on December 10.

Chief scores:

Sri Lanka 193 (Dimuth Karunaratne 93) and 226 for 6 (Udara Jayasundera 63, Kithuruwan Vithanage 61, Angelo Mathews 54 n.o)

New Zealand Board X1 399 (Bharat Popli 79, Ben Smith 81, Shawn Hicks 79, Tim Johnson 62, Dushmantha Chameera 4 for 57)