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133rd Battle of the Blues cricket encounter:
Thomians take honours on first day
Dinesh WEERAWANSA
S. Thomas’ College capitalized on a shock decision by their
traditional rivals Royal College to field first and took the opening
day’s honours in their 133rd Battle of the Blues three-day cricket
encounter which began at SSC grounds, Colombo yesterday.
However, Royal openers shared a half century first wicket partnership
to score 53 for one at close, in reply to S. Thomas’ healthy first
innings total of 325 for 9 decl. – the highest by the Mount Lavinia
school since that match winning total of 374 for 7 declared made n 2007.
This is the third successive year that S. Thomas’ has put on a total of
over 300 runs, though they have failed to win the big match after 2007.
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S. Thomas’ College batsman Asiri Wickremanayake celebrates
scoring his falf century against Royal College
during the 133rd Battle of the Blues three-day cricket
encounter which began at SSC grounds, Colombo yesterday.
Picture by Lalith C Gamage |
It appeared to be a good toss to lose as S.Thomas’ did well to
capitalize on the poor decision made by Royal to invite their opponents
to take the first lease of a perfect batting strip. As stated in our
match preview yesterday, the SSC wicket looked favourable for batsmen
though Royal appeared to have had other ideas.
Unfortunately, Royal failed to read the wicket and their skipper Imal
Liyanage preferred to bowl first after winning an important toss last
morning.
Royal could have justified the controversial decision of Liyanage if
they were armed with a strong bowling attack which could capture wickets
at regular intervals.
Instead, they dragged themselves into early trouble by affording the
Thomians to occupy that perfect batting strip first.
The only consolation Royal had in the pre-lunch session was the
wicket of fresher and opener Devin Jayasinghe who was trapped leg before
for one run by Anupa Tillakaratne with 13 runs on the board. It was the
Thomian batsmen who made merry against inaccurate Royal bowling,
punishing their opponents to all corners of the picturesque SSC grounds.
Opener Asiri Wickremanayake (85) and one drop bat Javed Bongso (97)
exposed all weak links in the Royal attack with an entertaining 179-run
partnership for the second wicket that frustrated Royal bowlers on
either sides of the lunch break.
S.Thomas’ were strongly placed at 130 for one at lunch with Asiri
Wickremanayake (64 n.o) and Javed Bongso (57 n.o) at the wicket.
By then, the duo had completed their 100-run partnership off 147
balls in 103 minutes
The Wickremanayake-Bongso alliance accounted for a new second wicket
partnership record for S. Thomas’ in the Battle of the Blues series,
erasing a 61-year-old previous mark of 161 runs by A.F. Molamure (113)
and N.T. Weerasuriya (81) in 1941. However, the series record for the
second wicket, held by Royal – 185 runs between C.J. Fernando (160 n.o)
and G.Pathmanathan (97) in 1971, was narrowly saved. However, Royal off
spinner Poorna Aluthge was able to deprive centuries to both the Thomian
batsmen, removing them with the space of ten runs. The departure of
Wickremanayake with the total on 192 saw Aluthge capturing three quick
top order wickets with the addition of only 13 runs to the Thomian
total.
S.THOMAS’ COLLEGE
1ST INNINGS
Devin Jayasinghe lbw b. Tillakaratne 1
Asiri Wickremanayake c. Pathmanathan b Aluthge 85
Javed Bongso c. Abeysekera b. Aluthge 97
Sachin Pieris b. Aluthge b. Tillakaratne 8
Thilaksha Sumanasiri run out 28
Chamod Pathirana c. Liyanage b. Karunaratne 48
Umesh Fernando lbw b. Pathmanathan 4
Dinush Peiris c. Gunatillake b. Karunaratne 32
Madushan Ravichandrakumar c. Abeysekera b. Karunaratne 0
Rishen Mathangaweera not out 0
Extras 22
Total for 9 wkts decl. 325
Batting time: 75.4 overs, 334 mts.
Did not bat: Dilum Fernando
Fall of wickets: 1-13, 2-192, 3-202, 4-205, 5-261, 6-268, 7-296, 8-298, 9-325
Bowling : Deva 11-0-63-0, Tillakaratne 15-3-15-1, Karunaratne 13.4-0-59-3,
Aluthge 25-42-40-3, Pathmanathan 11-0-54-1
ROYAL COLLEGE
1ST INNINGS
Isuru Gunatileka not out 31
Roaneka Ahangamage C. Fernando b. D.Fernando 20
Poorna Aluthge not out 0
Extras: 2
Total: for one wicket at close 53
Batting time: 15 overs, 67 mts.
Fall of wickets: 1-53.
To bat: Imal Liyanage, Heshan Kumarasiri, Milan Abeysekera, Chamika Karunaratne,
Devin Pathmanathan, Samapth de Silva, Gaurav Deva, Anupa Tillekeratne,
Bowling: Pathmanathan 6-1-24-0, Perera 5-0-9-0, Ravichandrakumar 3-0-16-0, D.Fernando 1-0-4-1
Umpires : Asoka de Silva and Ruchira Palliyaguru. |
