The last match at Dambulla was between the England A team and Sri Lanka's equivalent. In fact, the England name remained on the door of our dressing room, setting the bar pretty high for Latymer's cricketers to aspire towards. We made a dream start at this inspirational ground: Harjeet Ahluwalia taking two wickets in the opening two balls, with Kelvin Brenner holding a high catch on the boundary at third man, and Alex Pigott nicely snaffling behind the stumps. Throughout this, we were supported by cheers, singing, and general Barmy Army-esque behaviour from the rest of the Latymer squad high in the stands.
Our North-Western Province opposition team soon rallied though, keeping the run-rate high. A hard-hitting 74 from their number 4 helped them reach 150-8. In response, Latymer gave away some cheap wickets, and our relative inexperience in facing spin showed through - we will need to adapt quickly. Alex Pigott scored a quick-fire 25, whilst Zakhir Tunda impressed with a knock of 40, though we fell short by 55 runs.
Later on, a much-changed Latymer squad faced North-Western Province in a second Twenty-20 game. Sharp fielding helped keep them at bay, with Jack Pickering and Zakhir Tunda instrumental in two fine run-outs, and Marcus Jordan - after weeks of exile from Latymer cricket - took two strong catches. Chasing 153-8, Tunda, Savage, Ahluwalia, Pieris and Lazarus all made double figures. The latter's 22 from just 10 balls kept Latymer's chase going; in the end, we were left to rue some wasteful extras as we fell 23 runs short.
Tomorrow, we head towards the mountains and the city of Kandy, and we hope to see some elephants along the way.
