After being overwhelmed by Pakistan in the Group Stage Sri Lanka regrouped and beat England easily in the Quarter final Knock-Out Stage.

ESPNstaff: “SL thump England to book semi-final berth”

A fine performance by Sri Lanka’s spinners was capped by a stroke-filled 95 from opener Avishka Fernando as they brushed England aside by six wickets to move into the semi-final of the Under-19 World Cup. England had won the toss and opted to bat, a decision their captain Brad Taylor defended quite strongly at the presentation. “We didn’t think it did an awful lot early,” he said and thought 250 could have been within their reach had the middle overs gone better. As such they were all out for 184 without facing their full quota of overs.

  Legspinner Wanidu Hasaranga was Sri Lanka Under-19s’ best bowler with returns of 3 for 34 © ICC

Not that the first few overs went England’s way either. Opener Dan Lawrence dragged one onto his stumps for 9, his partner Max Holden was caught at slip for 8 and the tournament’s top scorer Jack Burnham could only manage 11 at No. 3. Callum Taylor tried to resurrect the innings with 42 off 57 balls, but his wicket triggered a middle-order collapse. What would rankle England more was the ball that got Taylor lbw had pitched outside leg stump while he was playing a shot. England fell from 120 for 4 in the 35th over to 136 for 7 in the 40th as Sri Lanka strangled the innings with spin. Legbreak bowler Wanidu Hasaranga picked up 3 for 34.

Out walked the Sri Lanka openers and cashed in 51 runs in eight overs before the lunch break. Avishka battered left-arm seamer Sam Curran for four successive fours in the third over and never looked back. He got to his 50 off 44 balls and looked set for a hundred until he chose to swipe at a bouncer he had originally seemed to duck under and was caught behind for 95. It was only a minor roadblock for Sri Lanka though, who coasted to victory with six wickets and 86 balls to spare.

“Very happy about our performance, first off it was the bowlers, they did a really good job then Fernando played an amazing knock,” says Charith Asalanka, Sri Lanka captain. “Little moisture was there, and I told the bowlers to make use of it and get the early wickets. Our plan is pace and spin, and these are spin-friendly conditions and we made full use of if. India are a very good team, very good players of spin. But it will be another match, we have played them before, we know about their batting and bowling.”

“It was a pretty good wicket, 185 wasn’t really enough,” Brad Taylor, England captain.. “I think batting first was the right thing to do. We didn’t think it did an awful lot early. Just didn’t get enough runs. Definitely, some soft dismissals in the middle. Could have got 250 if we had consolidated. We still believed with our bowlers, but obviously wasn’t to be. I guess just getting ourselves in in these pitches, have to get in and then you can go big”

Avishka Fernando is Man of the Match. “Very happy today for doing well for the team. In December we played against England as well, it was good for us. India are a good side, we are a good side as well.”

Praneeth: “Promising perfomance by the young Sri Lankans. They’re peaking at the right time and they have to as they are going to face one of the heavyweights in the semis. But one has to feel for England, they totally outplayed their opponents in three games, lost just one game and are out of the tournament.”

Sri Lanka Under-19s won by 6 wickets (with 86 balls remaining)

ICC Under-19 World Cup – Quarter final

Youth ODI no. 1077 | 2015/16 season

Played at Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur (neutral venue)

7 February 2016 (50-over match)

	England Under-19s innings (50 overs maximum)		R	M	B	4s	6s	SR
	DW Lawrence	b AM Fernando	9	18	18	2	0	50.00
	MDE Holden	c Asalanka b AM Fernando	8	23	19	1	0	42.10
	JTA Burnham	b PWH de Silva	11	37	21	1	0	52.38
	CJ Taylor	lbw b Asalanka	42	56	57	4	0	73.68
	GA Bartlett	c Nimesh b Mendis	25	63	58	0	0	43.10
	SM Curran	c WIA Fernando b Ashan	25	34	35	1	0	71.42
	RC Davies†	c & b PWH de Silva	8	16	19	0	0	42.10
	BGF Green	b PWH de Silva	26	35	38	1	1	68.42
	BJ Taylor*	lbw b Silva	22	29	25	1	0	88.00
	MS Crane	c Nanayakkara b Nimesh	5	7	7	0	0	71.42
	S Mahmood	not out	0	1	0	0	0	–
	Extras	(w 2, nb 1)	3
	Total	(all out; 49.2 overs; 166 mins)	184	(3.72 runs per over)

Fall of wickets 1-13 (Lawrence, 4.6 ov), 2-18 (Holden, 6.1 ov), 3-47 (Burnham, 14.5 ov), 4-82 (CJ Taylor, 22.6 ov), 5-120 (Curran, 34.2 ov), 6-125 (Bartlett, 35.3 ov), 7-136 (Davies, 39.5 ov), 8-170 (Green, 47.1 ov), 9-182 (BJ Taylor, 48.6 ov), 10-184 (Crane, 49.2 ov)

	Bowling	O	M	R	W	Econ
	AM Fernando	6	1	16	2	2.66	(1w)
	SHTN Nimesh	7.2	0	26	1	3.54
	NACJ Nanayakkara	1	0	7	0	7.00
	PWH de Silva	10	1	34	3	3.40
	BADN Silva	10	0	49	1	4.90
	KIC Asalanka	4	0	14	1	3.50
	PHKD Mendis	5	0	18	1	3.60	(1w)
	S Ashan	6	0	20	1	3.33	(1nb)

	Sri Lanka Under-19s innings (target: 185 runs from 50 overs)		R	M	B	4s	6s	SR
	WMK Bandara	run out (Lawrence)	22	53	41	2	0	53.65
	WIA Fernando	c †Davies b Mahmood	95	120	96	11	1	98.95
	PHKD Mendis	c Green b Lawrence	10	12	13	1	0	76.92
	KIC Asalanka*	b Crane	34	63	57	6	0	59.64
	S Ashan	not out	5	12	6	1	0	83.33
	PVR de Silva†	not out	4	1	2	1	0	200.00
	Extras	(lb 4, w 7, nb 5)	16
	Total	(4 wickets; 35.4 overs; 134 mins)	186	(5.21 runs per over)

Did not batPWH de Silva, NACJ Nanayakkara, BADN Silva, SHTN Nimesh, AM Fernando

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Fall of wickets 1-76 (Bandara, 13.5 ov), 2-102 (Mendis, 18.1 ov), 3-171 (WIA Fernando, 32.5 ov), 4-182 (Asalanka, 35.2 ov)

	Bowling	O	M	R	W	Econ
	SM Curran	4	1	23	0	5.75
	S Mahmood	7	0	40	1	5.71	(5w)
	MS Crane	5.4	0	35	1	6.17	(2w)
	BJ Taylor	5	0	24	0	4.80
	DW Lawrence	10	1	33	1	3.30
	CJ Taylor	2	0	12	0	6.00	(1nb)
	BGF Green	2	0	15	0	7.50

Match details

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Toss – England Under-19s, who chose to bat
Series – Sri Lanka Under-19s advanced

Youth ODI debut – NACJ Nanayakkara (Sri Lanka Under-19s)
Player of the match – WIA Fernando (Sri Lanka Under-19s)

Umpires – GO Brathwaite (West Indies) and AT Holdstock (South Africa)
TV umpire – MD Martell (Australia)
Match referee – AJ Pycroft (Zimbabwe)
Reserve umpire – Ahsan Raza (Pakistan)

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 ALSO SEE http://www.dailynews.lk/?q=2016/02/07/sports/sri-lanka-reach-under-19-world-cup-semifinals

Sri Lanka reach Under-19 World Cup semifinals

Feb

07

2016

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Sports

The Sri Lankan Under-19 Team has made sure all the South Asian teams are on course to reach the semifinals as they have beaten the England team by 6 wickets in the Semifinals as Avishka Fernando scored 95 runs and helped his side set up a semifinals clash with India.

The Sri Lankan side had finished second in their group after losing to Pakistan but they made sure that they recovered from the loss even after losing the toss. The Sri Lankan captain said that they wanted to bat first but English captain asked them to bowl.

Even that went in their favour as both English openers lost their wickets in first 7 overs for score of 18. Callum Taylor batted steadily and scored 42 runs off 57 balls as he made sure that his side came back after the early loss. But they were unable to get partnerships.

The Sri Lankan bowlers kept taking wickets in regular intervals and did not let English batsmen have a partnership of 50 runs in whole innings. Wanidu Hasaranga took 3 whereas Asitha Fernando took 2 wickets as English side were bowled out for 184 in 49.2 overs.

The Sri Lankan opener Avishka Fernando was very aggressive as he scored most of the runs in his 76 runs partnership with Kaveen Bandara. The latter got out but Fernando kept going and missed the century by just 5 runs. Sri Lanka were easily able to chase the total with 6 wickets in hand and 86 balls to spare. (cricketnewsworld)