Sri Lankan bowlers set up series win

An all-round bowling display in the field secured Sri Lanka Under-19s a six-wicket win over Australia Under-19s at the Marrara Cricket Ground, and more importantly, clinched the series in the final match.

This match was won in the first innings, after Australia opted to bat and managed to put up only 122 in 37.3 overs. Australia had made decent progress after Chathura Peiris removed the opener Tom Beaton for a 23-ball 4, reaching 43 for 1 in the 11th over. But then Peiris struck to get rid of Nic Maddinson who had eased his way to 24 from 27 balls.

From here Australia slipped against Rushan Jaleel's offspin and Lahiru Jayarathne's medium-pace. Jaleel ripped through the middle order with 3 for 36 while Jayarathne bowled an extremely tidy spell of 7-4-9-2 to throttle the lower order. Nadeera Rajaguru, bowling his variation of legbreaks, skittled the tail with 3 for 3 on debut.

Set 123 to take the series, Sri Lanka lost six wickets, mostly due to their urgency to chase like a locomotive. Despite the loss of the wicketkeeper-batsman Andri Berenger for 1 in the second over, No. 3 Bhanuka Rajapaksa slammed 33 from 16 balls before he was bowled by Jason Floros. Floros', an off-break bowler, picked up three wickets but Rumesh Buddika's unbeaten 37 sealed the win in the 24th over.