One of the  finest attacking batsmen to come through from Sri Lanka Under-19 side is Avishka Fernando. When Sri Lanka Under-19 won a series in England in 2016 under Roy Dias, Avishka played a pivotal role in the series win and British press commented that the shots he plays and the time he has to play them reminded them of a certain Aravinda de Silva. Soon, Avishka was drafted into the senior side, but he didn’t make an impact and was shown the door.

Since then he has been in and out of the side. An opening batsman who can make use of field restrictions in white ball cricket, he has been played all over the line up.

As Sri Lanka’s World Cup campaign was a flop, one point that was highlighted was that someone like Avishka should have been in the squad. However, to be fair by the selectors, he had a bad run prior to the World Cup.Avishka is on the verge of being recalled to the senior side for the upcoming series against India as he has been in cracking form in the LPL.

On Wednesday, Dambulla Sixers had posted 192 for two with Kusal Perera smashing a century in 52 balls. It was a massive target. Jaffna Kings chased down the target to get a win under their belt in a last ball thriller. Avishka was their star as he produced a sparkling 80 in just 34 deliveries with seven fours and six sixes. His knock earned him the Man of the Match award.

“It was a big game for us and the target was quite demanding. We had to get 12 runs per over at one stage and we had a game plan and glad we pulled it off. Charith Asalanka was brilliant today. It’s good to be out in the middle batting with him.’

Avishka shared a 134 run partnership with the Jaffna Kings captain after they had been reduced to 36 for three. It was a superb comeback.

“I was slotted to bat at number three, but I had a chat to the coach and we decided that it’s better if I bat at number four. Glad it turned out to be a good decision. Avishka now has back to back half-centuries in the tournament. His form is vital for Jaffna Kings. After winning three titles in a row, Jaffna were a flop last year. Their rebuilding has gone well and Avishka is a key player for them. In this form, there’s no doubt that he will be recalled to the Sri Lankan side next month.

Maris Stella College, Negombo and Lyceum International, Wattala were crowned the boys and girls overall champions respectively at the Schools Relay Carnival concluded at the Vincent Dias Stadium Badulla on Thursday.Maris Stella aggregated 87 points to win by six points as their closest rivals St. Joseph Vaz’s College Wennappuwa and St. Benedict’s College, Kotahena finished second and third with 81 and 80 points respectively.

Ratnayake Central Walala(63) ended up in the fourth position while Rahula College Matara(46) finished fifth.

Lyceum dominated sprint relays to aggregate 120 points, while Ratnayake Central finished second (94) thanks to the dominant performances in the distance medley and 800 metres relays.

Holy Cross College, Gampaha (49), Dharmapala  College, Pannipitiya (38) and Ave Maria Convert , Negombo (31) finished third, fourth and fifth respectively.The three-day event organized by Sri Lanka Schools Athletics Association was sponsored by Ritzbury.

Sri Lanka Under 19s conceded a four runs defeat according to DLS method to hand their England counterparts a 2-1 series victory in the Youth ODIs at Hove on Wednesday.In reply to the home team’s 268 runs, Sri Lanka Under 19s could muster only 260 runs with Gayana Weerasinghe leading with a 76-ball 80 runs. The Maliyadeva College, Kurunegala batsman scored 12 fours in his knock, while Mahith Perera scored 53 runs (54 balls) with three fours and a six. Open batsman Pulindu Perera made 38.

England were helped by skipper Luc Benkenstein’s century and a disciplined bowling performance. Vihas Thewmika was the pick of the bowlers for Sri Lanka taking four wickets for 33 runs in nine overs, while Dinura Kalupahana took three wickets.

Sri Lanka Under 19s had a remarkable start to the series winning the first match at Chelmsford by 65 runs, with Sharujan Shanmuganathan (57), skipper Dinura Kalupahana (49), Mahith Perera (58 n.o.) and Diniru Abeywickramasinghe (52) making contributions with the bat.

Vihas Thewmika (3/37), Hivin Kenula(2/28), Thisara Ekanayake (2/48) and Praveen Maneesha (2/50) did well to restrict the home team to 229 runs.

England Under 19s bounced back in the second ODI amassing 360 runs (Freddie McCann 174: Dinura Kalupahana 5/81, Dumindu Sewmina 2/91) before restricting the visitors to 330 runs (Pulindu Perera 64, Gayana Weerasinghe 57).

Sri Lanka Under 19s will now meet the hosts in a two match Youth Test series starting on Monday.

Scores

England Under 19s 268 for 9 in 45 overs (Freddie McCann 28, Charlie Allison 87, Luc Benkenstein 102; Dinura Kalupahana 3/58, Vihas Thewmika 4/33)

Sri Lanka Under 19s 260 all out in 44.4 overs (Pulindu Perera 38, Gayana Weerasinghe 80, Mahith Perera 53; Harry Moore 2/42, Freddie McCann 2/39)