Sri Lanka fought back on day three of their warm-up match for their upcoming Test series against England, ensuring the game goes into a fourth day despite being bowled out for the second time by England Lions.
Sri Lanka, playing mostly their full strength side, were shocked by the Lions on day one when they were bowled out for 139. Graduate of the South Asian Cricket Academy, Zaman Akhter, took five-for in that first innings, with teenage speedster Josh Hull chipping in with three wickets. Dimuth Karunaratne was Sri Lanka's top-scorer with 26.
Things got worse for Sri Lanka when the Lions top-order piled on the runs. Opener Ben McKinney scored 46 off 47 balls before Hamza Shaikh steadied the middle-order with 91, falling just nine runs short of a century. Somerset's Kasey Aldridge chipped in with some valuable lower-order runs, scoring 78 off 96 balls batting at No.8. The Lions were eventually bowled out for 324 with a first-innings lead of 185.
Sri Lanka's batters rallied in their second innings, however. Nishan Madushanka scored 77 opening the batting with Karunaratne and Angelo Mathews reached a half-century before he was dismissed by Farhan Ahmed - the 16-year-old brother of Rehan Ahmed. Rehan finished the day with three wickets, also picking up Madushanka and Sadeera Samarawickrama. Hull took another two wickets in Sri Lanka's second innings, which ended with the Lions needing 122 to win.
Batting in the evening session, McKinney was dismissed for for 20 off nine having been trying to get the job done that night. He hit three fours and a six in his short innings before he was bowled by Dhananjaya de Silva. The very next ball, Oliver Price fell for a golden duck to Dhananjaya, leaving the Lions two wickets down before stumps.
They will need 75 runs with eight wickets in hand tomorrow (August 17), to secure victory.
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