England Men Under-19s will head to Chelmsford for a series decider after the first Youth Test against Sri Lanka Under-19s ended in a rain-affected draw.

Any hopes of a result had been dulled when the second day was completely washed out, after which the tourists controlled the contest to earn a deserved 77-run first-innings lead. Sri Lanka U19s then batted out the remainder of the match to be 192 for 4 when stumps was called at 5.30pm.

Skipper Dinura Kalupahana’s century was followed by Praveen Maneesha’s 6 for 56 as the legspinner claimed five of the six Young Lions wickets to fall on the final day.

England U19s were bowled out for 247 but will take positives ahead of next week’s second Youth Test in the form of Freddie McCann’s 92 at the top of the order while Lancashire’s Keshana Fonseka also fell just short of a century when he was caught driving at Sheshane Marasinghe on 86. The pair had put on 160 for the second wicket yesterday.

Surrey Academy paceman Alex French picked up four wickets in the first innings too – when England had reduced Sri Lanka to 37 for 4 – but they were unable to assert that early authority as Kalupahana’s classy century shifted the momentum.

Three late wickets the previous night  meant the Young Lions started the final day needing to reassert themselves, but instead they lost 6 for 54 with Maneesha’s skiddy legspin doing the majority of the damage.

Rocky Flintoff added one to his overnight score when he was caught by Nathan Caldera before Maneesha had Jack Carney trapped lbw pushing forward.  Fonseka had been untroubled as he struck 13 boundaries in his 149-ball stay but, like a number of batters yesterday on a slowing pitch, he pushed a drive into the infield and was caught by Sadew Samarasinghe.

Maneesha mopped up the remaining three wickets in back-to-back overs to give Sri Lanka a first-innings lead they would barely have imagined earning after their first-morning collapse.

From there the match meandered towards a draw. Farhan Ahmed picked up his first wicket of the match when he snuck one past Samarsinghe’s forward prod and in the next over Noah Thain held a sharp catch above his head at first slip when Pulindu Perera swiped at Jaydn Denly’s second ball.

Sharujan Shanmuganathan was composed in reaching 73 before swiping at Denly and being caught in the deep by Ahmed, who also held the catch to remove Gayana Weerasinghe off Daavya Sharma.

Brief scores:
Sri Lanka Under 19s first innings 324 in 85.4 overs [Mahith Perera 22, Dinura Kalupahana 104, Diniru Abeywickramasinghe 43, Nathan Caldera 55; N Sharma 2-59, A M French 4-81, Alex Green 2-36] and 192/4 in 56 overs [Pulindu Perera 34, Sadew Samarasinghe 20, Sharujan Sanmuganathan 73, Gauan Weerasinghe 33, Mahith Perera 20*; Jaydon Denly 2-57]
England Under 19s first innings 247 in 48 overs  [Freddie McCann 92, Keshana Fonseka 86; Vihas Thewmika 2-37, Praveen Maneesha 6-56]

[Cricinfo]