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Sri Lanka A complete win, but Tector looking to take the positives into next game

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COLOMBO – Sri Lanka A wrapped up a 10-wicket win over Ireland Wolves early this morning, however, Wolves captain Harry Tector believes that his side can take the learnings from this first match and look for an improved performance in the second game of the series starting on Sunday in Hambantota.
Resuming their overnight total at 182-9, the Wolves’ last pair of James Cameron-Dow and JJ Garth added 14 runs before the last wicket fell – setting Sri Lanka A a small target of 42 runs for victory.

The Sri Lankan openers completed the task in the seventh over and gave the home side a comfortable 10-wicket win.

Speaking after the game, Harry Tector said:

“It’s pretty disappointing to end it early in three days, but I think for quite the young side that we are we’ve learned a lot from this four-day game. We’ll look to carry that learning into the next game at Hambantota which will be massive.”

“We probably let ourselves down in the first innings – we were hoping for high 200s, closer to 300 in the first innings. It’s what you need out here, you need to post a big total in the first innings and we didn’t do that. Ultimately that was where we let ourselves down, and from there we were chasing the game.”

“[In Sri Lanka A’s first innings] we had about a 15-minute period where we took four wickets and we were hoping to keep that roll going – but in fairness to them they batted quite nicely after that. We were searching for wickets, but once we got those four wickets we probably strayed from that plan and became a bit inconsistent with our line and length and allowed them to score a bit too quickly. We’ll learn from that and go into the next game looking to improve.”

Sri Lanka A now have a 1-0 lead in the series, with the second four-day game starting on Sunday 13 January 2019 at the Mahinda Rajapaksa International Cricket Stadium in Hambantota.

Image: Teams shake hands after the match

SCORECARD IN BRIEF

Sri Lanka A v Ireland Wolves, 5-8 January 2019, SSC Colombo

Ireland Wolves 153 (45.2 overs; J McCollum 76, N Rock 28; L Embuldeniya 4-46, M Shiraz 4-47)
Sri Lanka A 308 (77.1 overs; T Siriwardana 104, P Mendis 91; J Cameron-Dow 7-77, M Adair 3-43)
Ireland Wolves 196 (54.3 overs; J Shannon 32, L Tucker 26; L Embuldeniya 5-73)
Sri Lanka A 44-0 (6.5 overs; P Nissanka 26*, W Fernando 16*)

Sri Lanka A won by 10 wickets

A full scorecard is available here.

About the Ireland Wolves

The Ireland Wolves team was created in 2017 to bridge the gap between domestic first class and international cricket. The squad recently completed an eight-match series against Bangladesh A in Ireland, which followed on from a tour to Bangladesh made by the Wolves in 2017.

IRELAND WOLVES TOUR SCHEDULE

• 1 January 2019 – Two-day warm-up match (MCG Katunayake) – completed (scorecard)
• 5 January 2019 – 1st Four-day match v Sri Lanka A (SSC Colombo) – completed (scorecard)
• 13 January 2019 – 2nd Four-day match v Sri Lanka A (MRICS – Hambantota)
• 19 January 2019 – 1st One-Day match v Sri Lanka A (MRICS – Hambantota)
• 21 January 2019 – 2nd One-Day match v Sri Lanka A (MRICS – Hambantota)
• 24 January 2019 – 3rd One-Day match v Sri Lanka A (SSC Colombo)
• 26 January 2019 – 4th One-Day match v Sri Lanka A (SSC Colombo)
• 29 January 2019 – 5th One-Day match v Sri Lanka A (RPICS – Colombo)
• 30 January 2019 – Ireland Wolves depart

Sri Lanka A completed the win this morning by 10 wickets
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