DAMBUL­LA – Half-cen­turies from Jew­el An­drew and Adri­an Weir failed to top a su­perb hun­dred from open­er Pulin­du Per­era, and West In­dies Un­der-19s were beat­en by 52 runs in the se­ries-de­cid­ing third ODI against hosts Sri Lan­ka Un­der-19s on Fri­day.

Wick­et­keep­er-bats­man An­drew, bat­ting at six, hit the top score of 80, and Weir, open­ing the bat­ting, sup­port­ed with 52, and the Caribbean side were bowled out for 253 in 40.3 overs, re­ply­ing to the Sri Lankans’ 304 for eight off 50 overs at the Ran­giri Dambul­la In­ter­na­tion­al Sta­di­um in Sri Lan­ka.

The re­sult meant that the hosts won the three-match se­ries 2-1 af­ter Sri Lan­ka took the first Youth ODI by six wick­ets at the same venue, where West In­dies won the sec­ond Youth ODI by 195 runs.

Per­era hit 17 fours and four six­es in 155 from 140 balls to be the rock up­on which the hosts’ built their to­tal af­ter they de­cid­ed to bat.

No oth­er Sri Lan­ka bats­man matched his au­thor­i­ty or dura­bil­i­ty, and he dom­i­nat­ed an eighth-wick­et stand of 80 with Vi­has Thewmi­ka, not out on 28, be­fore falling in the 47th over with the 300-run mark in sight.

Nathan Ed­ward was the most suc­cess­ful West In­dies Un­der-19 bowler, tak­ing three for 66 from nine overs, while De­shawn James and Tar­rique Ed­ward sup­port­ed with two wick­ets apiece.

West In­dies Un­der-19s scored quick­ly, but they lost their cap­tain Stephen Pas­cal for five in the third over be­fore Weir and Joshua Dorne came to­geth­er to put on 72 for the sec­ond wick­et to keep the mo­men­tum go­ing.

Weir fell in the 12th over, and Dorne made 34 be­fore he de­part­ed three balls lat­er to pre­cip­i­tate a pe­ri­od of in­sta­bil­i­ty in which the vis­i­tors lost four wick­ets for 41 in the span of 49 balls.

An­drew an­chored two tidy stands of 42 with Nathan Sealy and 45 with Tar­rique Ed­ward be­fore they too.

Sealy scored 20, and Ed­ward added sev­en and his dis­missal trig­gered a slump in which West In­dies lost their last four wick­ets for 33 in the space of 26 balls.

The two teams will now con­test two Youth Tests with the first start­ing on Mon­day at the same venue, where they play the sec­ond match, start­ing on Sep­tem­ber 12.

CMC

Scores:

SRI LAN­KA UN­DER-19s 304 for eight off 50 overs (Pulin­du Per­era 155, Vi­has Thewmi­ka 28 not out, Rav­is­han Neth­sara 27; Nathan Ed­ward 3-66, Tar­rique Ed­ward 2-41, De­shawn James 2-70).

WEST IN­DIES UN­DER-19s 253 off 40.3 overs (Jew­el An­drew 80, Adri­an Weir 52, Joshua Dorne 34, Maven­dra Dindyal 21, Nathan Sealy 20; Vish­wa Lahiru 3-48, Vi­has Thewmi­ka 2-29, Sineth Jayawar­dene 2-29, Garu­ka San­keth 2-44).

Sri Lan­ka Un­der-19s beat West In­dies Un­der-19s by 51 runs