By: M. Shamil Amit

(Daily Mirror) - Left arm spinner Wanuja Sahan playing in his first international match showed his talent with an allround effort in the one off Test match against the visiting Afghanistan ‘A’ side as he put Sri Lanka ‘A’ on top at the end of the third day in the match played at the P. Sara Stadium.

Sahan on the second day cracked a knock of 75 and his five wicket haul today had the Afghanistan ‘A’ batting in tatters. Afghanistan ‘A’ , resuming from their overnight score of 18 for 1, found the left-arm spinner too hot to handle.

Apart from two partnerships with the first a second wicket stand of 55 runs between opener Imran Mir who made a top score of 62 with ten boundaries and Bahir Shah Mehboob and the other of 58 runs for the fifth wicket between Abdul Hadi and Ijaz Ahmad the others failed to make any impression as they folded up for 198 runs.

Afghanistan ‘A’ made to follow on with a deficit of 237 runs to erase fared better with openers skipper Ihsanullah Janat and Imran Mir giving them a sedate start of 49 runs and Imran who remained unbeaten on 51 associated in an unbroken stand of 52 runs for the third wicket for Afghanistan ‘A’ to end day three on 108 for 2 but they still need to erase 129 runs when play gets on the final day tomorrow.

The match will be continued tomorrow.

Scores:

Sri Lanka ‘A’ 435

Afghanistan ‘A’ (18/1 overnight) 198 (Imran Mir 62, Abdul Hadi 45, Ijaz Ahmad 28, Bahir Shah Mehboob 23, Rahmatullah Zadran 17: Wanuja Sahan 5/58, Nishan 3/37) and 108 for 2 (Ihsanullah Janat 27, Iman Mir 51 n.o., Ijaz Ahmad 23 n.o.)