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Sri Lanka 4A’ end SAARC jins

Butterfingered host fade

Sports Reporter
Ruwan Kal page's Sri Lanka A made light of history when the second national side of the one-day world champions made the most of host Bangladesh's I pathetic fielding to register their first win in the third ' SAARC cricket tourney at the Dhaka Stadium yesterday.
Chasing 221 for victory they posted 222 for five wickets with more than stx overs to spare to end their jinx In this regional meet with aplomb. In fact, yesterday's success marked quite a few firsts' as far as Srl Lanan involvement in this invitaional meet Is concerned. While it । meant their first victory I against Bangladesh in the i SAARC tourney after two ignominious losses in the earlier two editions, it also turned out to be their first win in the tour-| ney since its inception way back in 1992, a fact that got I drowned in the din of disap-| pointment over Bangladesh s shabby fielding and the conse-auent ouster of the hosts from te reckoning for a berth in 1 Friday's final.
The premature exit of Bangladesh, the finalists of the second edition in 1994, with i one match to spare against defending champions India A on Wednesday, was marked by fielding completely unworthy ■ of a country aspring international standard. The butter -fingered Bangladeshi fielders dropped as many as five catches allowing Sri Lankans to make the fairly fighting total of 220 i rather Inadequate at the end of i the day.
Naveed Nawaz, the man tipped as one of the certain inclusions in the Sri Lankan national squad in near future, led the islanders' victory charge with a chancy but robust 88. The left-handed number three batsman, adjudged man-of-the-match ahead of Bangladesh's Sanwar Hossain who scored a well-made 76 on his debut , hit nine fours and a sixer in his 106-ball vigil. A member of the Sri lankan A side in the previous SAARC meet. Naveed however owed his match-winning knock to Bangladeshi fielders who dropped a few catches of him with two of them being real sitters once when he was on 23 and his side StruggHhg at 96 for three in 30 overs.
Zakir Hossain, the culprit on that occasion, failed to cling to a straight forward catch at deep-mid wicket off off-spinner Naimur Rahman Durjoy. This reprieve' by the debutant rightarm seamer, not only gave the left-hander a new lease of life, j but also decisively swung the pendulum on Sri Lanka's way. | And if that was the beginning of the rot. the latter part of the match was mere extension of an exhibition of poor catching and fielding by the local boys. As if one was not enough fellow right-arm seamer Hasibul Hossain . the man who waged a lone battle on behalf of Bangladesh in the previous match against Pakistan A was the next man to
contribute in the seemingly endless process of giving new lease of life to Naveed. He dropped Naveed at long-off while the left-hander was five short of his fifty after having covered the ground and positioned him well for the catch. Naveed part. Jayantha and skipper Ruwan. who remained unbeaten on 31 at the kill, had also their share of charmed life in the hands of their opponents with slippery palms.
After surviving those close calls. Naveed never looked behind to guide his side close to victory before he holed out to deep in the 41st over, leaving Sri Lanka at 196/5.
Coming into bat at number three, Naveed shared 47 runs for the third wicket with Jayantha before the latter departed for 26. He added vital 71 runs for the fourth wicket with Waragoda and then featured in a run-a-ball 48 run stand with his skipper Kalpage who did not only succeed in exacting revenge against Bangladesh but also raised the possibilities of a maiden Sri Lankan entry in the SAARC final. Leading the table with three points including their share of one from the awarding by default of their rain-spoiled tie against India A. the Lankans have one match at hand against Pakistan A on Tuesday.
Bangladesh had defeated Sri Lanka by seven wickets in their first meeting in 1992 before a five-wicket win in the second version of the meet in 1994.
But for Bangladesh, the day began rather promisingly once skipper Akram decided to bat first after winning the toss.
Despite a rather slow start . crawling to 100 in 30.3 overs. Bangladesh raised the vision of a score in the vicinity of 250 with Akram in full cry and debutant Sanwar Hossain out with a mission to do justice to his ability. Together they put on 113 runs for the fourth wicket.
Akram who broke the shackles of the water-tight Sri Lankan fielding, with a huge sixer scored 54 off 63 balls with the help of four fours and two massive over boundaries. While his captain provided the beef befitting his huge stature. Sanwar the slender right-hander scored a work-manlike 76 which featured seven well timed boundaries, most of them fine forcing strokes in front of the wicket. The 130-ball vigil came to end when he tried to pull Dulip Liayanage the Sri lankan medium pacer who finished withfour wickets for 42.
The good work of the two which extended upto the 45th over the- Bangladesh innings was badly let down by those who followed them at the wicket. Six wickets tumbled for 30 runs as tight-fielding by the Sri Lankans coupled with poor understanding of the requirements of one day cricket by Bangladeshi batsmen made a mess of hosts' dream of a really safe total.Two batsmen--Ena-
mu) Haq and Naimur Rahman became run out victims to kill the tempo of an ascending run rate and the pity of it all was that it all happened due to poor or no application of the basics of the game. This however, could not take anything away from an otherwise thoroughly athletic exhibition of the Sri Lankan fielding epitomised in a brilliant caught and bowled of Athar All by skipper Kalpage and a throw from the deep by Waragoda that found Enam short of the crease.
SCOREBOARD
BANGLADESH
Athar c & b Kalpage 37
Javed Omar c Jayantha b Liyanage 0
Jahangir c Jayantha b Liyanage 7
Sanwar Hossain c Anurasiri b Liyanage 76
Akram Khan st Desanayaka b Chandana 54
HH Shanto b Liyanage 9
NR Duijoy run out 16
Saiful Islam b Kalpage 0
EH Moni run out 1
KM Pilot not out 3
Zakir Hossain not out 1
Extras: (4-lb. 5-nb, 7-w) 16
Total: (for 9 wickets in 50 overs) 220
Fall of wickets: 1-1; 2-25; 3-75: 4-188: 5-194; 6-200; 7-208; 8-211; 9-218.
Bowling O M R W
Liyanage 10 0 42 4
Villavarayan 6 0 31 0
Anurasiri 10 0 46 0
Kalpage 10 1 36 2
Chandana 10 1 43 1
Mendis 4 1 18 0
SRI LANKA A
Ruvin Pieris c Pilot b Shanto 12 Chaminda Mendis c Javed b Zakir 8
Naveed Nawaz c Moni b Saiful88 Saman Jayantha c Durjoy b Moni 26
W Waragoda c Pilot b Athar 17 Ruwan Kalpage not out 31 Upal Chandana not out II Did not bat: P Dessanayaka, D Liyanage. M Villavarayan and D Anurasiri.
Extras: (3-lb, 2-nb. 24-w) 29
Total: (for 5 wickets in 43.2 overs) 222
Fall of wickets: 1-21; 2-30; 3-77; 4-148; 5-196
Bowling O M R W
Shanto . 8.2, 0 40 1
Zakir 8 0 36 1
Saiful 9 0 44 J
Athar 8 1 40 1
Durjoy 5 0 21 0
Moni 2 0 11 1
Akram 3 0 27 0
Result: Sri Lanka A won by 5 wickets.
Man-of-the-match: Naveed Nawaz (Sri Irinka A).