Dubai: Last tournament's finalists India and Australia suffered defeats in the first round of warm-up matches of the ICC U19 Cricket World Cup here Monday.
Sri Lanka opener Sadeera Samarawickrama hit an attractive 82 and Priyamal Perera scored an unbeaten 50 to inspire their side to five wickets victory over defending champions India at Zayed Cricket Stadium, while Ryan Burl hit a fluent 60 as Zimbabwe defeated last event's runners-up Australia by three wickets at Abu Dhabi Oval 1.
In the other matches of the day, two-time former champion Pakistan romped to a comfortable 10-wicket victory over hosts United Arab Emirates at The Sevens, England overcame Scotland by 153 runs at ICC Academy 1, two-time losing finalists South Africa beat Namibia by five wickets at Abu Dhabi Oval 2, 1998 finalist New Zealand outgunned Canada by five wickets at Sharjah Cricket Stadium and 2004 finalist West Indies made short work of Afghanistan by nine wickets at ICC Academy 2.
In the India-Sri Lanka match, the defending champions threw away a half-century opening wicket start to slump from 53-0 to 209 all out in 45.5 overs. All the top order batsmen got off to good starts but couldn't convert these into big scores as No.8 batsman Deepak Hooda finished as the top scorer with 39.
Sri Lanka, in itheir chase, achieved victory with seven balls to spare after opener Samarawickrama and Hashan Dumindu (48) put on 125 runs for the first wicket. Priyamal Perera then hit nine fours in an unbeaten 62-ball 50 to provide Sri Lanka a huge confidence-boosting victory.
India play their second warm-up against South Africa Wednesday.
