129th Battle of the Blues:

Charith Fernando’s century resuscitates Royal innings

Dinesh WEERAWANSA

A fighting century by No.7 batsman Charith Fernando resuscitated Royal innings from a hopeless 149 for 7 to a healthy 300 form 9 at close on the opening day of their 129th Battle of the Blues three-day cricket encounter against S. Thomas’ begun at SSC grounds, Colombo yesterday.

It looked as if the Thomians were heading for a second successive early innings win as wickets tumbled at regular intervals after their skipper Jehan Thahir elected to field first.

Though his decision looked debatable on a perfect batting strip, the Thomian bowlers quickly came into the picture to support their captain’s choice.

Royal opened their account on a disastrous note losing openers Chalaka Bogoda and Sahan Hettiararchi with only 26 runs on the board.

Left-arm orthodox spinner Milshan Fernando, who has enjoyed a rich harvest of over 100 wickets this season, was instrumental in getting the first Royal wicket when he trapped Hettiarachchi leg before for 19.

With the addition of only four more runs to the total, an accurate fielding effort by Nilusan Fernando saw Bogoda being run out for five runs.

It looked as if Royal’s most experienced pair of Kusal Perera and Banuka Rajapaksa, the two players whom the Thomian coach Ranil Abeynaike wanted early, were doing the recovery job as they brought total up to 64 for 2 before disaster struck the Royal camp once more, this time heavily.

The Reid Avenue boys lost three wickets within the space of three runs as they were reeling at 67 for 5. With the top five batsmen, including their trump cards Rajapaksa and Kusal Perera, back in the pavilion, it looked as if the Thomians were setting for the kill, just like last year.

At lunch, Royal were 93 for 5 after 136 minutes of batting in 31 overs with Kithruwan Vithanaga (10 n.o) and Charith Fernando (16 n.o) at the wicket.

The pair added 79 valuable runs for the sixth wicket before Fernando, the Royal vice captain, saw the fall of two successive wickets at the other end - that of Vithanage for 40 (off 55 balls) and last year’s captain Haroon Mowjood for one.

But the Royal deputy did not give up things easily and kept his cool at the other end. Together with Kanishka Boteju (15), he brought the total up to 216 before the latter was caught by Saleem, off Ghany.

It was a gem of an innings by Fernando, who did not have too many big innings under his belt this season, during which he had aggregated only 296 runs. But Fernando’s willow started talking when his team needed it the most as he gradually took control of the Thomian attack with some intelligent batting.

His brave innings finally came to an end when he was caught behind by Weerawardena off Walpita. But by then he had already taken Royal to a healthy position with a fluent knock 137 off 203 balls with 18 boundaries made off 264 minutes.

Royal’s eighth and ninth wicket partnerships produced 141 runs which belting the Thomian bowlers to all corners of the picturesque SSC grounds, which is hosting the big match for the 15th successive year. Charith Fernando was involved in two record breaking partnerships with Boteju (67 for 8th) and Yasith Abeykoon (81 for 9th).

The two new partnerships erased the previous marks of 61 for 8th (between H. Samarasekera and H. Jayasuriya in 1993) and 80 for 9th wicket (between S.P.F. Senaratne and L. Hewawitharana in 1950).

The Thomian bowlers did well at certain stages but their overall effort was not good enough in taking the full control of Royal batting which looked shaky at times. Dinesh Walpita was the most impressive of the Thomian bowlers to finish with three for 46 off 15 overs.

The match, sponsored by Dialog Telekom for the eighth successive year, will be continued at the same venue at 10 a.m. today.

ROYAL - 1st INNINGS

Chalaka Bogoda         run out      		 05
Sahan Hettiarachchi  lbw b. M. Fernando   	 19
Bhanuka Rajapaksa c. Thahir b. Walpita		 15
Kusal Perera    c. Nirrushan b. Walpita	 	 23
Dilan Nanayakkara c. Weerawardene b. Ghany  	 02
Kithruwan Vithanage c. De Silva b. Thahir	 40
Charith Fernandoc. Weerawardena b. Walpita 	137
Haroon Mowjood   c. Weeraratne b. M. Fernando	 01
Kanishka Boteju c. Saleem b. Ghany  		 15
Yasith Abeykoon not out       			 38
Maneesha Thanthirigoda  not out 		  0

Extras:                     	 		  5
Total: for 9 wkts at close       		300
Batting time:  89 overs, 374 mts.
Fall of wickets: 1-22 (Hettiarachchi), 2-26 (Bogoda), 3-64 (Rajapaksa),
		4-65 (Perera), 5-67 (Nanayakkara), 6-146 (Vithanage), 7-149 (Mowjood),
		8-216 (Boteju), 9-297 (C. Fernando).
Bowling: (to date)
	De Silva    12-2-42-0; Nilshan Fernando 13-3-42-1; Ghany 14-1-67-2;
	Walpita 15-2-46-3;  Milshan Fernando 22-3-62-1; Thahir 11-2-34-1; Saleem 2-0-6-0.
	S. THOMAS: Jehaan Thahir (Captain), Fahim Saleem, Raveenthirarajh Nirrushan,
	Ashan Fernando, Thilina Nugawela, Navid Ghany, Viswa Weerawardene, 
	Ruchira de Silva (Vice Captain), Dinesh Walpita, Nilshan Fernando, Milan Fernando.