ST JOHN’S, An­tigua – So­han de Liv­era struck an im­pres­sive cen­tu­ry for Sri Lan­ka Acad­e­my, but West In­dies Acad­e­my fast bowler Kelvin Pit­man grabbed sev­en wick­ets as the sides shared the spoils on the open­ing day of their four-day match in An­tigua on Sat­ur­day.

Bat­ting at num­ber sev­en, de Liv­era scored 130 from just 110 balls with 15 fours and two six­es, to res­cue his side from a per­ilous po­si­tion of 89 for five, as Sri Lan­ka Acad­e­my was even­tu­al­ly dis­missed for 292 in 65.4 overs at the Coolidge Crick­et Ground.

The vis­i­tors start­ed pos­i­tive­ly with open­ers Shevon Daniel and Ravin­du Ras­an­tha adding 70 for the first wick­et.

But once Pit­man broke the part­ner­ship by dis­miss­ing Daniel for 47, Sri Lan­ka Acad­e­my lost five wick­ets for 19 runs, with the fast bowler snar­ing four of those to fall.

De Liv­era then added 100 runs with Jan­ish­ka Per­era, who made 38, be­fore an­chor­ing the mid­dle or­der to a de­cent to­tal.

Pit­man end­ed with the su­perb fig­ures of 7-28 from his 13 overs, while left-arm pac­er Nathan Ed­ward took 2-58.

Sri Lan­ka Acad­e­my then struck ear­ly to re­move open­er Justin Jages­sar for a two-ball duck, but Ac­k­eem Au­guste (24 not out) and Mbe­ki Joseph, who fin­ished un­beat­en on 7, took the home side to 34 for one at the close of play, to leave them trail­ing by 258 runs.

CMC

SRI LAN­KA ACAD­E­MY 292 in 65.4 overs (So­han de Liv­era 130, Shevon Daniel 47, Jan­ish­ka Per­era 38, Ravin­du Ras­an­tha 24, Sithum Dis­anaya­ka 17 not out; Kelvin Pit­man 7-28, Nathan Ed­ward 2-58).

WEST IN­DIES ACAD­E­MY 34-1 in nine overs (Ac­k­eem Au­guste 24 not out).

CMC rb/25