Sri Lanka’s Lions recently made Potchefstroom their second home away from home when they played their first match of their current South African tour at Senwes Park.
From 18-20 December, the Sri Lankans took on the SA Invitational XI in a three-day match that was a closely-fought contest from beginning to end. The match ended in a draw.
The Sri Lankans batted first and scored 373 all out with Dimuth Karunaratne and Kaushal Silva hitting scores of 71 and 80 respectively before retiring.
Jeevan Mendis (51) and Dhananjaya de Silva (62) also scored half-centuries on an extremely hot day in Potchefstroom.
In reply, the SA Invitational XI scored 289 all out with Leus du Plooy being the standout batsman with a majestic 142 from 159 balls.
The North West Dragons’ Marques Ackerman scored 19 runs on his home ground against the tourists, whilst Duanne Olivier was a handful with the ball, picking up 4/54 in the first innings.
The Sri Lankans managed to score 212/5 in their second innings as the match ended in a draw. Kusal Perera once again scored a 50 with Upul Tharanga and Dinesh Chandimal also contributing with scores of 50 plus. In hindsight, it seems the Lankans needed to test themselves against a far more superior bowling line-up as they have been torn to shreds on their tour thus far in the first two tests against South Africa.
