Sri Lanka use 14 bowlers in their warm-up match against Board President's XI
The visiting Sri Lankan side got some much-needed match practice ahead of the three-match Test series against India as they played out a draw against the Sanju Samson-led Board President's XI in a two-day warm-up match at the Jadavpur University Campus ground in Kolkata.
Put into bat first, Sri Lanka ended day one at 411/8 with Sadeera Samarawickrama, Niroshan Dickwella, Angelo Mathews and Dimuth Karunaratne scoring fifties each before they declared their innings overnight to give their bowlers some time to get used to the conditions. For BP XI, Akash Bhandari and Sandeep Warrier picked two wickets each while Avesh Khan and Jalaj Saxena settled for one each.
The BP XI innings got off to a shaky start as they lost opener Tanmay Agarwal and Anmolpreet Singh in quick succession before Sanju Samson and Jiwanjot Singh pulled things back on track. When Jiwanjot looked settled, he got out for 35. But, Sanju continued to take on the Lankan bowlers as he reached his fifty off 63 balls.
Along with his Kerala teammate Rohan Prem, Sanju put on a 71-run stand for the fourth wicket before Rohan was trapped plumb in front of the stumps by Dhananjaya de Silva for 39. Soon after Rohan's dismissal, Sanju reached his century off 123 balls and continued his assault until he got out for a 143-ball 128 and as a result of that, his 85-run stand for the fifth wicket with B Sandeep came to an end.
14 bowlers used by Sri Lanka
Both the captains called off the match with BP XI's scorecard reading 287/5 in 75 overs with Sandeep and Jalaj batting on 33 and 20 respectively. The visitors used as many as 14 bowlers during the BP XI innings.
It was good experimentation by the skipper Dinesh Chandimal as he was trying to get the perfect combination for the first Test that begins on November 16. Chinaman bowler Lakshan Sandakan (12 overs) was the only bowler to have bowled over 10 overs while all others shared the remaining overs.
The only man from their 15-member squad for the tour who didn't bowl is wicketkeeper Niroshan Dickwella. Lahiru Thirimanne was the pick of the bowlers with two wickets while Dilruwan Perera, de Silva and Sadeera took a wicket apiece.