South Africa U19s captain Wiaan Mulder captured a five-wicket haul on Friday to put his team in control of the first Youth Test against Sri Lanka U19s on day two at P. Sara Oval grounds.

The 18-year old right-arm medium pace bowler produced plenty of heart and extra pace to decimate the inexperienced Lankan middle order taking 5 for 52 while opener Joshua Van Heerden and Jerome Bossr further pestered the hosts with an unbroken 114-run stand for the 3rd wicket to end day two with a lead of 145.

The hosts resumed day two on 108 for 2; the overnight batsmen, Cambrian Vishva Chathuranga and Anandian Sammu Ashan consolidated their good work before the latter was unfortunately involved in an ugly run-out, ending his 103-ball innings which yielded 43 runs.

The left hand-right hand combination of Ashan and Chathuranga added 92 runs for the 3rd wicket and within 6 balls both batsmen were back in the pavilion as top-scorer Chathuranga was the next to go chopping on to the stumps off Mulder to be dismissed for 81 off 132 deliveries.

The dismissals of Ashan and Chathuranga triggered a major collapse as the Sri Lanka U19s lost their last 8 wickets for 43 runs. Left-arm spinner Jade De Klerk dismissed Isipathana College duo, Sanjula Abeywickrama and Vishad Randika as well as all-rounder Damitha Silva.

St. Aloysius College batsman Ashen Bandara, playing his first Youth Test, chased down a wide delivery off Mulder and gave a simple catch to first-slip while the rest of the tail-enders perished in no time as the Jacques Kallis look-alike completed his five-wicket haul.

After gaining a slim 26-run lead, South Africa U19s lost Jesse Christensen and in-form Raynard Van Tonder inside the first two overs for just 5 runs. Christensen top-edged off Thisura Dilshan and was caught at mid-off by Sri Lanka U19s skipper Avishka Fernando while Van Tonder was sent back as a diving Ashen Bandara held on to a tough chance at point off the bowling of Thilan Prashan.

At 5 for 2, the hosts’ sensed an opportunity to crawl back into the game but right-handed Van Heerden and left-handed Bossr batted superbly to give full honours on day two to the visitors. Van Heerden collected his 59 runs off 143 deliveries and had 8 fours to his name while Bossr scored 46 at a strike-rate of 26.13 with 5 boundaries.

The match will be continued tomorrow (Saturday) for the third and final day.

South Africa U19s – 206 all out in 56.1 overs: Raynard Van Tonder 41, Wiaan Mulder, Wandile Makwetu 24, Ricardo Vasconcelos 78*, Thisaru Dilshan 3/62, Thilan Prasan 2/31, Praveen Jayawickrama 2/41.

Sri Lanka U19s – 180 all out in 64.5 overs: Vishva Chathuranga 81, Sammu Ashan 43, Wiaan Mulder 5/52, Jade De Klerk 3/18.

South Africa U19s (2nd inn) – 119/2 in 55 overs: Jerome Bossr 46*, Joshua Van Heerden 59*.