KARACHI: Ben Duckett and Daniel Bell-Drummond helped England Lions rewrite record books on Monday as the hosts plundered a massive 425-1 against Sri Lanka ‘A’ in the last fixture of the triangular one-day series at Canterbury.

Both batsmen registered career-best scores with Duckett striking the first double century in the Lions cricket history as the talented left-hander lit up the St Lawrence Ground by blasting 220 from 131 balls to follow his unbeaten 163 against Pakistan ‘A’ at Cheltenham just six days ago.

Duckett’s innings, which included 29 boundaries and six sixes, was the eighth best individual score in List A matches and his unbroken partnership of 367 with Bell-Drummond — who hit his maiden one-day hundred as he ended up making 171 (139 balls, 15 fours and four sixes) — was just six short of bettering the one-day world record for any wicket.

West Indies’ Chris Gayle and Marlon Samuels added 372 for the second wicket against Zimbabwe during the 2015 World Cup match at Canberra.

Bell-Drummond and Duckett accelerated in the final 20 overs as they collected 224, including 135 from the last block of 10 overs to enable Lions equal the 11th highest List A total.

Duckett outscored his partner quite comfortably as he brought up his century in 75 balls before taking another 48 deliveries to reach the coveted 200 mark.

Sri Lanka ‘A’ began their daunting chase well as Niroshan Dickwella (60 off 45 balls, seven fours and one six) and Mahela Udawatte (40 off 43, three fours and one six) shared an opening stand of 105 inside the first 15 overs. But once they went, there was no stopping the Lions roaring to their fourth successive win in the series despite Angelo Perera (69 off 73, five boundaries) and Thisara Perera (45 off 40) adding 72 for the sixth wicket.

The tourists were finally dismissed for 285 in the 48th over to leave Lions deserving winners by 140 runs. Left-arm seamer George Garton returned a career-best 4-43.

Sri Lanka ‘A’, who drew the two-match unofficial Test series 1-1 with Pakistan ‘A’, lost all four of their one-dayers including both fixtures against Pakistan ‘A’.

Scoreboard

ENGLAND LIONS:

D.J. Bell-Drummond not out 171

D.J. Malan st Dickwella b Rambukwella 23

B.M. Duckett not out 220

EXTRAS (B-1, LB-3, W-6, NB-1) 11

TOTAL (for one wkt, 50 overs) 425

FALL OF WKT: 1-58.

DID NOT BAT: S.W. Billings, L.S. Livingstone, B.L. D’Oliveira,

L.A. Dawson, T.K. Curran, T.S. Roland-Jones, S. Mahmood, G.H.S. Garton.

BOWLING: Gamage 10-0-79-0 (1w); Dilshad 9-0-60-0 (1nb); N.L.T.C. Perera 10-0-101-0 (3w); Rambukwella 9-0-83-1 (3w); Pathirana 7-0-47-0; Priyanjan 3-0-25-0; Jayasundera 2-0-26-0 (1w).

SRI LANKA ‘A’:

N. Dickwella c Billings b Garton 60

M.L. Udawatte b Garton 40

M.D.U.S. Jayasundera lbw b Dawson 7

A.K. Perera c Duckett b Mahmood 70

P.B.B. Rajapaksa c Curran b Dawson 9

S.M.A. Priyanjan c D’Oliveira b Malan 15

N.L.T.C. Perera b Garton 45

S.S. Pathirana b Garton 18

R.L.B. Rambukwella c Curran b Mahmood 9

P.L.S. Gamage b D’Oliveira 1

M.N.M. Dilshad not out 0

EXTRAS (LB-8, W-4) 12

TOTAL (all out, 47.3 overs) 285

FALL OF WKTS: 1-105, 2-106, 3-114, 4-134, 5-168, 2-40, 7-261, 8-281, 9-285.

BOWLING: Curran 3-0-28-0 (1w); Roland-Jones 4-1-26-0; Mahmood 8-0-57-2 (1w); Livingstone 6-0-33-0 (1w); Garton 8-1-43-4 (1w); Dawson 8-0-41-2; D’Oliveira 8.3-0-37-1; Malan 2-0-12-1.

RESULT: England Lions won by 140 runs.

UMPIRES: I.D. Blackwell and R.T. Robinson.

Published in Dawn, July 26th, 2016