A trio of half-centuries saw the South Africa U19s declare on 295-8 on day one of the deciding Youth Test against Sri Lanka.
The visitors won their third successive toss & elected to bat first at Pallekele on Sunday. Jesse Christensen, captain Wiaan Mulder and Ricardo Vasconcelos posted 67, 66 and 56 respectively. The latter gave the visitors a good start with a 69-run opening stand with Joshua van Heerden (22). Another notable contribution came from the fourth-wicket partnership between Mulder and Raynard van Tonder (48), who narrowly missed out on a well-deserved 50 when he was bowled by Praveen Jayawickrama.
A couple more short bursts of runs came from the fifth & sixth-wicket stands between Mulder and Christensen as well as Christensen and Vezokuhle Mtungwa (6 off 32), adding 39 and 30 runs respectively before the South African skipper decided to declare.
Sri Lanka in reply, were seven without loss at the close.
