Kaushal Lokuarachchi, a former Sri Lanka under 19 World Cup cricketer tooknine wickets for 50 runs with his right-arm leg-spin to dismisse Kenya for234 in the drawn two-day game between the Development Squad and the touringKenyan cricketers at the

Saadi Thawfeeq27-Jan-2002Kaushal Lokuarachchi, a former Sri Lanka under 19 World Cup cricketer tooknine wickets for 50 runs with his right-arm leg-spin to dismisse Kenya for234 in the drawn two-day game between the Development Squad and the touringKenyan cricketers at the NCC grounds on Sunday.Kenya replying to the Development Squad first innings of 281 for ninewickets declared were all out in 65.3 overs, a total they would not thoughtof when the openers put on 106 off 19.1 overs. Lokuarachchi bowledunchanged for 24.3 overs for his nine wickets. He was deprived of thehonour of taking all ten wickets in the innings when Amila Perera,Lokuarachchi’s left-arm spin partner, ran out Martin Suji from shortmidwicket.Only three bowlers had previously taken all ten wickets in a match at thisvenue, M.N. Samsudeen for Combined Services against Pakistan Eaglets, andtwo other NCC bowlers Malcolm Spittel and Annesley de Silva in the divisionI Sara trophy matches.It was an excellent piece of leg-spin bowling by Lokuarachchi on a pitch,which hardly afforded any assistance to the spinners. Until he came on tobowl, the Development Squad bowlers had looked helpless on a placid battingtrack where Kenyan openers Kennedy Otieno and Ravindu Shah pulverised theattack to the tune of 106 runs off 115 balls.Lokuarachchi broke the opening partnership by having both Otieno and Shahcaught behind the wicket by Rally Tissera in his opening over. Then bowlingwith tight control went onto destroy the rest of the batting. From themanner the majority of the batsmen got out, it was due to sheer frustrationmore than anything else.Otieno hit a rapid 70 off 60 balls comprising one six and 13 fours. He gotoff the mark with a square cut over point for six and his next six scoringstrokes were six fours. He raced to his half-century off 30 balls andlooked in a murderous mood driving and pulling anything that was pitchedshort. The Development Squad opening bowlers Dharshana Lokuhettige andLasith Malinga paid dearly for not keeping the ball up to the batsman andwent for 118 runs off 19 overs.Skipper Anushka Polonowita delayed bringing on Lokuarachchi into the attackuntil the 20th over, and no sooner was he introduced, the Kenyan battingwas made to look rather ordinary.Shah made 29 off 63 balls, Steve Tikolo 36 off 41 balls (6 fours) andThomas Odoyo 26 off 29 balls (5 fours), but none had the patience to staylong enough to build an innings.”The young leg-spinner put pressure on our batsmen. For a leg-spinner, hebowled with discipline. It is something we have to learn,” said Kenyancoach Sandeep Patil.”It was a good practice match. Ideal weather and a very good pitch. We area one-day side and our batsmen will have to learn to play long innings inthe middle. From an opening partnership of 106, to be all out for 234 isnot the type of batting we are capable of. We should look at our battingquite seriously.At home we play in conditions of 18-20 degrees. The conditions here aredifferent, but we can’t give conditions as an excuse. We must try to adjustto them very quickly,” he said.”It was a good fifty-fifty pitch and to bowl on such a surface and get ninewickets is a commendable effort,” said Sri Lanka ‘A’ head coach and managerRoshan Mahanama.”Kaushal concentrated on his length and he bowled the googly. He is theAnil Kumble type of bowler. He needs to keep on playing because legspinners mature late. He has the potential, but he must work on hisbowling, especially the leg-spin,” said Mahanama.Mahanama also complimented opening bat Jehan Mubarak for scoring a century.”He made full use of the opportunity he got to make a hundred. He has beenscoring runs at different levels of the game and is a good investment forthe future,” he said.Kenya next take on Sri Lanka ‘A’ in the first of three four-day unofficialTests beginning at the Saravanamuttu Stadium on Thursday.