After conceding a slender lead of just 14 runs, St John’s College stamped their authority through an unbeaten opening stand of 121 runs in their second innings on Day 2 of the 113th Battle of the North at the Jaffna Central grounds.
The 2nd day’s play resumed with Jaffna Central on 81 for 3 in their first innings. Their hero with the ball on day 1, Kamalarasa Iyalarasan continued his ‘blockathon’ on the second day too but the rest perished with not much of a contribution in terms of runs. Even though the batters failed to contribute with runs, they managed to hang on to their wickets for long periods of time, which helped Jaffna Central to eat up enough time.
The only batsman who played with a positive frame of mind was U19 National Cap, Vijayakanth Viyaskanth. He came out with intent and scored a brisk 41 with 3 sixes and 1 four. After the fall of Vijayakanth, Iyalarasan tried to be more proactive and he finally reached a hard fought half century. He was losing partners from the other end and ultimately he came to a situation where he had to score the runs all by himself. He somehow managed to get his team over the deficit and was ultimately stumped after a marathon knock of 77 off a whopping 239 deliveries.
Jaffna Central once again had the opportunity to seal the game in the third session with some quick wickets. But, their bowling and fielding let them down. The two opening batsmen of the visitors Sawmiyan and Thanujan put together an unbeaten stand to see off the day and put St John’s College in the lead by 107 runs.
Result
Match drawn
Jaffna Central College
195/10 (79.2) & 176/7 (40)
St. John’s College, Jaffna
181/10 (46.5) & 245/9 (89)
Batsmen
R
B
4s
6s
SR
Sowmiyan Naganthirarajah
c Nitharan Saravanamuththu b Iyalarasan Kamalarasa
9
12
2
0
75.00
Thanujan Christy Prasanna
c Nitharan Saravanamuththu b Iyalarasan Kamalarasa
