Sri Lankan Board XI v West Indies - 3 day First Class match 1991/2 - Sri Lankan Board XI 1st Innings

Sri Lankan Board XI v West Indies - 3 day First Class match 1991/2 - P.Saravanamattu Stadium, Colombo

Toss: Sri Lankan Board XI

Sri Lankan Board XI won a toss of vital importance, ensuring they would avoid the worst of batting conditions by batting first.
With the pitch set to deteriorate and become a spinners minefield late in the match, first innings runs were vital.
Openers Dhammika Ranatunga and Duleep Samaraweera took the sting out of the West Indies pace attack with an opening stand of 87, which put the home team on top.
Though they stumbled to 179/7 as Roger Harper took 4 wickets, but legspinning allrounder Chandana scored an unbeaten 52* to add 97 with Dharmasena 45, to enable Arjuna Ranatunga to declare at 276/8.
Offspinner Harper took 4-67, and Patterson showed fire in taking 3-71, but Marshall and Walsh were down on form and disappointing.
The Board XI were now in an excellent position to pressure an understrength West Indies batting lineup on a spinning pitch.

Sri Lankan Board XI 1st Innings 276/8 Declared (Overs 98.4)

Batsman	Fieldsman	Bowler	Runs	Min	Bls	4s	6s
D Ranatunga	c AL Logie	b BP Patterson	39	155	103	3	0
DP Samaraweera	lbw	b RA Harper	45	151	101	1	0
S Ranatunga		b PV Simmons	29	94	66	2	0
A Ranatunga*	c CB Lambert	b RA Harper	25	46	43	3	0
RP Arnold	c CA Best	b RA Harper	6	47	34	0	0
AGD Wickremasinghe+		b BP Patterson	8	31	24	0	0
RS Kalpage	c JR Murray	b RA Harper	15	57	41	3	0
UDU Chandana	not out		52	156	109	4	0
HDPK Dharmasena		b BP Patterson	45	128	76	6	0
WPUJC Vaas	dnb
KSC de Silva	dnb
extras		(b1 lb6 w2 nb3)	12
TOTAL		8 wickets for	276

FOW
1-87(DP Samaraweera) 2-87(D Ranatunga) 3-129(A Ranatunga) 4-149(S Ranatunga)
5-149(RP Arnold) 6-165(AGD Wickremasinghe) 7-179(RS Kalpage) 8-276(HDPK Dharmasena)

Bowler	Overs	Maid	Runs	Wkts
MD Marshall	19	1	57	0
BP Patterson	20.4	3	71	3
CA Walsh	19	5	49	0
PV Simmons	11	2	25	1
RA Harper	29	9	67	4

Legspinning allrounder Upul Chandana top scored for the Sri Lankan Board XI with an unbeaten 52*