Sri Lanka has managed to win the first match against Zimbabwe by 39 runs in the Under-19 World Cup held in South Africa.
Dinura Kalupahana, who excelled in all-around performance, won the Player of the Match award.
The Zimbabwe Under 19 players managed to restrict the Sri Lanka Under 19 team to 204 runs, who batted first. The Zimbabwean players, who sent all three first-order batsmen back to the pavilion for a very small number of runs, faced a strong challenge from the Sri Lankan middle-order batsmen.
Dinura Kalupahana, who scored 60 runs in 55 balls, colored the innings with two sixes and six fours. Sarujan Sammuganathan scored an unbeaten 41 runs.
Zimbabwe’s innings, which played the reply innings, were limited to 22 overs after 14 overs were bowled due to bad weather. They had a target of 129 runs to win, and they managed to get only 89 runs after losing everyone.
Malsha Tharupathy, who excelled with the ball, took 4 wickets for 17 runs in four overs.
Sri Lanka 19 – 204 (48.3)
Zimbabwe 19 – 89 (21.1)
