Australia A’s lower middle order heaped more pain on Sri Lanka A on day three to set their side on course for victory in the four-day game in Darwin
Liam Scott, Josh Philippe and Mitchell Perry turned the screws on Sri Lanka A on day three to put Australia A in command of the four-day game at Darwin’s Marrara Oval.
After the hosts resumed on Tuesday on 4-241 in reply to Sri Lanka A’s 272 – and lost Nathan McSweeney to the day’s first ball for 94 – batters six, seven and eight completed impressive half centuries to build Australia A a formidable first-innings score.
When the innings came to an end around an hour before stumps, Australia A had gone from a shaky 4-127 on day two to be all out for 486 – a lead of 214.
In reply, Sri Lanka A were quick out of the blocks with Lahiru Udara taking 12 runs from Perry off the first five deliveries of the innings.
He soon died by the sword, however, skying an attempted pull off paceman Henry Thornton to keeper Philippe on 17, before Sri Lanka A reached stumps on 1-49 off 13 overs.
McSweeney had resumed seeking six more runs for the century that would shore up his message to national selectors, after being overlooked for Australia’s current tour of the West Indies.
Instead he was out on the first delivery of the morning, bowled between bat and pad by a sharp delivery from paceman Pramod Madushan (3-82) which moved back off the seam, his innings ending off 220 balls and including six fours.
McSweeney’s South Australia teammate Scott began the day on 52 and added 42 more off 104 balls as he and Philippe put on 98 for the sixth wicket.
But Scott also departed for 94, this time off 221 balls, the allrounder holing out to mid-on against left-arm spinner Sonal Dinusha (4-97), who was the pick of Sri Lanka A’s bowlers.
Philippe and Perry kept the runs coming in a 58-run stand before the former was trapped lbw to Nishan Peris for an aggressive 85 off 107 deliveries, with five fours and a six.
Perry continued in building a more steady 61 before he was also caught off Dinusha, mistiming a drive to extra cover, leaving Australia A 9-465.
“The conditions were quite tough in terms of scoring,” Scott said at stumps. “For me, it was just how can I best occupy time of the crease and let the game unfold in front of me.
“Nathan’s played some high-level cricket now and he was awesome out there, just chatting through different scenarios and different ways to score.
“And then (Philippe), he’s so naturally aggressive and takes the scoreboard out of it for you as a player, you can do your own thing because you know he’s going to tick along at the other end.
“So it was a good day to hopefully set up a win for us tomorrow … (the wicket) is starting to deteriorate a little bit, there’s some footholds there so hopefully our spinners can get to work and get some funky tricks out of the wicket.”
Australia A v Sri Lanka A series
July 4: First one-dayer, Marrara Cricket Ground, Darwin
July 6: Second one-dayer, Marrara Cricket Ground, Darwin
July 9: Third one-dayer, Marrara Cricket Ground, Darwin
July13-16: First four-day match, Marrara Stadium, Darwin
July 20-23: Second four-day match, Marrara Cricket Ground, Darwin
All matches live streamed on cricket.com.au and the CA Live app, and via Kayo Sports. All matches start 10:30am AEST.
