The first Youth Test between Sri Lanka U19s and South Africa U19s ended in a draw on Saturday.

Joshua van Heerden and Jerome Bossr put on a 190-run stand for the third wicket in SA’s second innings, breaking the record set by Neil McKenzie and Boeta Dippenaar during the first ever SA U19 Test in 1995.

Van Heerden hit 108 from 237 deliveries, while Bossr took 248 balls for his 90. They helped move the visitors from their overnight score of 119-2 to 250-6 declared. Sri Lanka’s Thilan Prasan was the pick of the bowlers with 3-32 in 16 overs. That gave Sri Lanka 277 runs to try and track down in 50 overs, but they were resilient and finished on 158-3.

The hosts’ captain, Avishka Fernando (57*) and Shammu Ashan (52) hit half-centuries to move the innings forward after the loss of Vishva Chathuranga (13) and Pathum Nissanka (14) at the top of their innings. Sanjula Abeywickreme (21*) batted the remainder of the innings with his skipper after Jade de Klerk (2-49) and South Africa captain, Wiaan Mulder (1-38) were the only ones to make an impact with the ball.

Mulder, captaining a side full of debutants, was the star player for the side throughout, scoring 41 in the first innings, before picking up figures of 5-52 in Sri Lanka’s first innings.

The second Youth Test commences on Tuesday at Kurunegala.