ICC U19 World Cup 2022 Wellalage’s heroics gives Sri Lanka U19 stunning win over Australia

Sri Lanka U19 skipper Dunith Wellalage’s heroic all-round performance steered the side to a stunning four-wicket win against Australia U19 in a Group D match of the ICC U19 World Cup tournament played at Basseterre.

Wellalage bagged five scalps in his ten overs, even bowling out a maiden, and then cracked a match winning knock of 52 which laid the foundation for Sri Lanka U19’s victory.

Australia U19, invited to take first lease of the wicket, were spearheaded by opener Campbell Kellaway was making steady progress with the score on 107 for 3 in the 29th over before skipper Wellalage made the breakthrough with the wicket of Kellaway who made a top score of 54.

The dismissal of Kellaway saw Australia U19 succumbing to Wellalage, who grabbed three quick wickets, to have them in a spot of bother on 112 for 6.

Despite two brief partnerships for the seventh and eighth wicket Wellalage, along with Matheesha Pathirana, cleaned off the tail to bowl out the Aussies for 175 runs.

Sri Lanka U19 in their run chase put themselves in deep trouble as they slid to 49 for 4 in the 13th over before skipper Wellalage came to the rescue of the side.

Wellalage featured in two valuable partnerships, first for 70 runs for the fifth wicket with Anjala Bandara who chipped in with 33, and the other of 52 runs for the sixth wicket with Ranuda Somaratne, who remained unbeaten on 32 to guide Sri Lanka U19 to reach the target in the 37th over.

In another match of the same group, hosts West Indies U19 recorded a comfortable seven-wicket over Scotland U19 while Pakistan U19 got off to a flying start with a convincing 115-run win over Zimbabwe U19 in a Group C encounter played at Diego Martin. -MSA

Results:
At Basseterre – Sri Lanka U19 won by four wickets
Australia U19 175 in 50 overs (Campbell Kellaway 54, William Salzmann 22, Nivethan Radhakrishnan 21, Tobias Snell 19, Isaac Higgins 15; Dunith Wellalage 5 for 28, Treveen Mathew 2 for 32, Matheesha Pathirana 2 for 34)
Sri Lanka U19 177 for 6 in 37 overs (Dunith Wellalage 52, Anjala Bandara 33, Chamindu Wickramasinghe 19, Ranuda Somaratne 32 n.o.; Joshua Garner 2 for 21, Tom Whitney 2 for 39)
At Basseterre – West Indies U19 won by seven wickets
Scotland U19 95 in 35.1 overs (Oliver Davidson 43; Shiva Sankar 3 for 17, Anderson Mahase 2 for 16, Onaje Amory 2 for 26)
West Indies U19 96 for 3 in 19.4 overs (Shaqkere Parris 26, Teddy Bishop 23 n.o.)
At Diego Martin – Pakistan U19 won by 115 runs
Pakistan U19 315 for 9 in 50 overs (Haseebullah Khan 135, Irfan Khan 75, Abdul Faseeh 27, Qasim Akram 20, Zeeshan Zameer 21 n.o.; Alex Falao 5 for 58, Mcgini Dube 3 for 68)
Zimbabwe U19 200 in 42.4 overs (Brian Bennet 83, Mathew Weich 26, Tendekai Mataranyika 26; Awais Ali 6 for 56, Zeeshan Zameer 2 for 32, Ahmed Khan 2 for 40)