Sri Lanka ‘A’ dominated the 2nd day against South Africa ‘A’ of the ongoing first 4-day game, which was played today (13th June) at Pallekele International Cricket Stadium in Kandy.
After dismissing the home side for 325 on Day 1, South Africa ‘A’ began their first innings this morning. Jordan Hermann and Skipper Tony De Zorzi came out as openers, but their opening stand was limited to just two balls as left-arm pacer Dilshan Madhusanka castled Hermann for note. Skipper Zorzi was Lasith Embuldeniya’s first victim as the visitors were reduced to 22/2.
Matthew Breetzke and Keegan Peterson were looking to re-build the innings, but the pair only managed to add 35 runs as the proteas had lost two wickets in the space of 4 balls, courtesy of Madhusanka, who removed Peterson for 19 before removing in-come Tristan Stubbs for a three-ball duck in the same over.
Sinethemba Qeshile, the wicket-keeper batter of South Africa ‘A’, smashed a first-ball boundary, but Embuldeniya trapped him front of the stumps to pick his second in the next delivery. At that stage, the visitors were 66/5 and from then onwards, it was all about Lakshitha Mansinghe who bowled off-spin, went through South African ‘A’ batters to pick the last five wickets to bowl them out for 131.
That was Manasinghe’s 9th occasion to claim a 5-wicket haul in his first-class career and finished with 5/19 in 10 overs, while Madhusanka took 3/31, and Embuldeniya scalped 2 for 61. Breetzke came as No.03 batsman and played with the long handle for the visitors, reaching his 14th first-class half-century as he remained unbeaten on 59 including 5 fours.
After the South African innings, it started raining in Pallekele and the Umpires had to call for an early stumps on Day 2. So far, the islanders are in a dominant position with a 194-run first innings lead.
 at Pallekele International Cricket Stadium in Kandy.){kind=link}