England Lions take control; Dimuth Karunarathne fails again

354
SL A vs ENg Lions 3rd Day
Sri Lanka A lost two wickets in pursuit of their target of 365 set by the England Lions, before stumps were drawn on day three at Pallekele.

The Lions resuming from their overnight score of 112/6 went on to make 215 all out as their tail wagged in tough conditions for batting.

The Curran brothers made useful contributions low down the order while Oliver Rayner(32*) and Thomas Helm(26) were involved in a significant partnership of 50 runs for the last wicket to push their overall lead to 364.

Spin twins Dilruwan Perera and Malinda Pushpakumara shared nine wickets between them as the hosts reached 215 all out in their second essay. Perera picked up 5/73 while Pushpakumara picked up four to end up with a match bag of eight wickets.

The left hand batsmen heavy Sri Lanka A top order struggled against the moving ball as both Dimuth Karunaratne and Sandun Weerakkody were trapped in front by Toby Roland-Jones and Tom Curran respectively.

Udara Jayasundara(18*) and Roshen Silva(07*) remained unbeaten when the umpires decided to call off play and will have an uphill battle tomorrow with Sri Lanka A needing a further 324 runs to win with just eight wickets standing.

England Lions 316 (80.2) Tom Westley 97, Toby Roland-Jones 82, Liam Livingstone 59, Malinda Pushpakumara 4/97, Asitha Fernando 2/31  & 215 (80.5) Keaton Jennings 37, Sam Curran 36, IP Rayner 32*, Tom Curran 29, Dilruwan Perera 5/73, Malinda Pushpakumara 4/77  

Sri Lanka A 167 (47.4) Sandun Weerakkody 68, Dilruwan Perra 37, malinda Pushpakumara 26, Toby Roland-Jones 4/51,Ollie Rayner 3/27  & 41/2 (15) Udara Jayasundera 18*, Sandun Weerakkody 16