Welcome to Part 2 of the Cumbria Cricket Sri Lanka Tour Diary!
Here’s the best from the last few days.
Tuesday 2nd April
Tuesday was a second day of safari at Yala National Park with our touring party getting some fantastic up-close experiences of the animals.
See the pictures below.
Wednesday 3rd April
Wednesday was another transfer day for the players as they left Yala National Park for the coastal resort of Waskaduwa.
On the way they stopped at the beautiful Isle of Gelato in Weligama (image below).
After checking in at their hotel in Waskaduwa, the team headed to the Buddhist shrine located at Kalutara Bodhiya.
A fantastic cultural experience!
Thursday 4th April
Today was matchday 3. See the reports below.
Overall a solid day of cricket, with the first game being a win contributed to by everyone. We batted first, with Spedds and Greeny being the standout performers – putting on a 100 partnership and sticking to their plans against spin. Dylan contributed towards the end with a quick 20 to set a score of 173 which we thought was slightly above par.
Going into the fielding, we bowled well and stuck to our plans with wickets shared between the bowlers and some great bits of fielding from Callum and Brownie. The game went to the final over but the lads got over the line with two balls to spare, winning by 11 runs.
It was a special day for Greeny, who celebrated his 19th birthday with a great innings. Hear his thoughts below.
Hear Scarlett Burrows’ take on the girls’ game.
Friday 5th April
Another matchday today.
A physically challenging day for the boys following 2 T20s the day before.
Richmond College won the toss and chose to field with openers Faizan and Josh putting on 60 for the first wicket.
Ollie G then came in and got to work with the spinners, taking Cumbria to 130 for 2. Towards the back end of the innings there were cameos from Speds, Cal and Stirlo taking Cumbria up to 234. Top scorers Faizan (53) and Josh Brown (36)
It was a blistering opening partnership from Stirlo and Cal followed up well by Fred with the ball, with Richmond on just 14-0 after 8 overs. However, the latter kept their nerve and slowly worked their way to 140-2. The seamers including Mackie, Scrogs and Dylan grafted hard and piled pressure onto the Richmond batters. However, it was captain Stirling who eventually got the reward, finishing with figures of 5-11 and sparking a collapse in the opposition batting order. Overall a great team effort on a tough 2nd day of back to back games.
Hear Josh Brown’s thoughts in the video below.
Cumbria Girl’s won the toss and elected to bat. We lost Lily early for 6 but Lucy (21) and Hollie (23) took us onto 57-1 before we had a mini collapse losing 4 wickets for 10 runs leaving us 67-5 Maddie (17) and Scarlett (24) rallied and we finished on a respectable 127.
After a nice Lunch Orla and Eve took 2 early wickets . Eve bowling 4 overs on the bounce in 35 degree heat and finishing with 1-6 off her 4 overs. However there talented left hand opener scored 47 and despite Scarlett trapping her LBW we couldn’t stop them reaching the target in 20 overs. A good game on a lovely ground in oppressive heat. The girls made lots of Sri Lankan friends.
Hear opening bowler Eve Bousfield’s thoughts below.
To finish Part 2 of the diary, we’ve got some great images of our teams making friends with the locals.
