Avishka Gunawardene and Ian Daniel shared an opening partnership of 106 before rain washed out the final session’s play on the second day of the first four-day unofficial Test between Sri Lanka ‘A’ and the touring Kenyans at the Sara Stadium

Saadi Thawfeeq01-Feb-2002Avishka Gunawardene and Ian Daniel shared an opening partnership of 106 before rain washed out the final session’s play on the second day of the first four-day unofficial Test between Sri Lanka ‘A’ and the touring Kenyans at the Sara Stadium. Sri Lanka ‘A,’ replying to Kenya’s first innings of 292, had scored 122 for one by the close of play.Play is scheduled to commence half an hour early at 10 a.m. and end half anhour late at 6 p.m., but how many overs can be got in will largely depend on the state of the weather.Sri Lanka ‘A’ trail Kenya by 170 runs in the first innings with eight wickets and two days remaining. Gunawardene’s powerful half-century and Daniel’s patient knock of 48 in three hours were the high points of the rain-restricted second day.The chunky left-hander played in a manner that only he can, going after thebowling from the outset. He played and missed several times and was droppedbehind the wicket on 19 by wicket-keeper Kennedy Otieno, who took off to hisleft but could not hold onto a thick edge. Martin Suji was the unlucky bowler on that occasion.But luck continued to favour the brave, and Gunawardene went on to complete ahalf-century off 92 balls in 138 minutes with the aid of eight fours. But on 57, he departed, edging a catch to Otieno off the spin of skipper MauriceOdumbe, who had brought himself on in the 33rd over as the seventh bowler in anattempt to separate the opening pair. Gunawardene’s innings of 57 comprised nine fours and lasted 153 minutes, by which time he had brought his side’s total to 106 with Daniel.The right-handed Daniel, in contrast, played a largely passive role, content to take his time over his half-century. The rain interruption found him two runs shy of achieving that objective.When stumps were drawn for the day, Daniel was unbeaten on 48, having faced128 balls and in that period struck eight fours. Partnering him was MichaelVandort on six.Earlier in the day, the last two Kenyan wickets offered hardly any resistance, adding just 10 runs to their overnight total of 282 for eight. Kaushalya Weeraratne had Otieno Suji caught at mid-off by Upul Chandana for a well-made 32 off 99 balls (three fours).Ruchira Perera, the left-arm pace bowler, finished off the innings by forcing last man Lameck Onyango to edge a catch to wicket-keeper Prasanna Jayawardene for five, leaving Mohammad Sheikh unbeaten on 10. Sheikh and Suji had added 26 for the ninth wicket.Perera, who looked the most impressive of the three seamers on display during the Kenyan innings, finished with four wickets for 70 in 20.5 overs.