Crookes who was promoted to number three in the batting order put up a tremendous performance and remained unbeaten on 95, made in 105 deliveries with the help of two sixes and four boundaries. He finished off the game in style by hoisting Malintha Warnapura for a six over long on and was later named as the 'Man of the Match'.
Crookes received good support from Martin Van Jaarseveld with the pair putting on 57 runs for the third wicket. In addition Crookes and HD Ackerman added a further 42 runs for the fourth wicket.
Earlier Sri Lanka 'A' batting first after winning the toss were dismissed for 206 runs in 49.1 overs. Indika de Saram playing in front of his home crowd hit a fighting half century under difficult circumstances. He held the middle order together and made a top score of 56 from 81 deliveries with the help of two boundaries.
Altogether the home side struggled for runs against some accurate bowling and managed only a total of 12 boundaries during the entire innings. Garry Gilder caused the early damage by remaining both openers Upeka Fernando and Avishka Gunawardena within the space of one run.
Skipper Dulip Samaraweera joined Indika de Saram and the pair rescued the side to a certain extent with a third wicket stand of 49 runs. But after their dismissal Sri Lanka 'A' lost wickets at regular intervals with only Lanka de Silva and Ruchira Palliyaguru making any significant contributions.
However the dismissal of Sajeeva de Silva turned out to be a controversial one as Derek Crookes broke the stumps at the non-striker's end when he seemed to have already completed his bowling action.