Bhandari restricts Lanka A

A four-wicket haul by speedster Amit Bhandari restricted the visiting Sri Lanka A team to 243-8 on the opening day of the 3-day match at Sar...

A four-wicket haul by speedster Amit Bhandari restricted the visiting Sri Lanka A team to 243-8 on the opening day of the 3-day match at Sardar Patel Stadium, Motera here today.

Bhandari got an early breakthrough for his team with the wicket of P Jayawardane 0 and also claimed the crucial wicket of R Herath who was looking comfortable on 51 and had put on 61 with O Wijesiriwardane for the eighth wicket.

The visitors were off to a shaky start but some fruitful middle-order partnerships and a dropped catch by Badani helped them cross the 200-run mark.

At one stage, the visitors were struggling having lost five wickets for 72 runs. However, middle-order batsmen 8211; T Kadambe 44, Anuska Polonovita 33, R Herath 51 and O Wijesiriwardene not out on 49 8211; made sizeable contributions to bring their side out of the early debacle. Gujarat speedster Munaf Patel managed to scalp one wicket while Siddharth Patel claimed two.

Earlier in the morning, India 8216;A8217; captain S S Das won the toss and elected to field. His decision to ask the visitors to bat first was proven right by the Indian seamers as opener P Jaywardene made his exit without making any personal contribution while team8217;s total was just one run thanks to a no-ball. Jaywardene was brilliantly caught by wicket-keeper Ajay Ratra of Amit Bhandari8217;s bowling.

Opener Ian Daniel and Jehan Mubarak continued their quest with a mixed approach of enterprise and cautiousness.

SCOREBOARD

Sri Lanka A 1st Innings: Ian Danail c Gavaskar b Bhandari 11; P Jayawardane c Ratra b Bhandari 0; Jehan Mubarak c Ratra b Trivedi 14; Naveed Nawaz lbw Trivedi 5; Lanka de Silva c Ratra b Bhandari 13; T Kandamne c sub Rayudu b M Patel 44; A Polonvita c Munaf Patel b Powar 33; R Herath c Gambhir b Bhandari 51; O Wijesiriwardane batting 49; T Laskshitta batting 8.

Extras b4, lb4, nb7: 15.

Total for 8 wkts: 243

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Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-24, 3-26, 4-41, 5-72, 6-110, 7-142, 8-209.

Bowling: Munaf Patel 15-2-47-1, Amit Bhandhari 21.5-8-55-4, Siddharth Trivedi 20-4-63-2, Ramesh Powar 22-6-36-1, Rohan Gavaskar 4.1-0-10-0, Sridhar Sriram 7-2-18-0.