In stark contrast to the senior team, Sri Lanka A are having a successful sojourn in Africa. They brushed aside Kenya with almost embarrassing ease to win the second limited overs match by six wickets at Mombassa Sports Club today.
Kenya once again struggled to get to grips with Sri Lanka's twirly men, who bowled out Kenya for 139 runs in 49.2 overs. In reply, Sri Lanka cruised to victory thanks to two entertaining cameo's from Jehan Mubarak (36) and Prassana Jayawardene (31).
In their defense, Kenya were always likely to struggle without the services of their two best batsmen. The loss of Steve Tikolo and Hitesh Modi was bad enough, but the loss of Maurice Odumbe to illness today, meant that the rump of Kenyan's batting was absent.
The Kenyan's have struggled to play Sri Lankan spinners on surfaces similar in type to those in Colombo. The pitches have been slow in pace, low in bounce and have offered great encouragement to the spinners. Today it was the turn of Dinuk Hettiarrachchi to weave a spell over the Kenyan batsmen. He picked up five wickets for 33 runs in his ten over spell.
Despite a studious innings from opening batsmen, Francis Otieno, who scored 35 runs from 91 deliveries, Kenya soon slipped to 31 for three. There was a brief rally for the forth wicket as Kennedy Otieno joined his namesake and the pair added 60 priceless runs. However, when the partnership was broken, Kenya crumbled. They lost three wickets for one run and were eventually bundled out for 138.
The Sri Lanka batsmen have not been pushed all tour and once again the services of the middle order were not required. Jehan Mubarak continued to display his young talent with an elegant 36 from just 27 balls, which included seven crisp boundaries. Prassana Jayawardene rode his luck to score 31 from 43 deliveries. The tourists lost four wickets on the way, but were eventually guided home by Upeka Fernando (17*) and Ruvin Peiris (18*).
© cricinfo
| Teams | Sri Lanka. |
| Players/Umpires | Dinuka Hettiarachchi, Jehan Mubarak, Steve Tikolo. |
| Tours | Sri Lanka A in Kenya |
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