Royal decimate the Thurstan bowling attack on Day 1 at Reid Avenue

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Published on Monday, 20 February 2012 21:08

Written by Ameen Mohomed

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Royal produced their best batting performance this season, by decimating the Thurstan bowling attack, and batting right through Day 1 in this tournament fixture at Reid Avenue.

This performance comes after many questions posed on the teams batting performance throughout the season, where they were bowled out on many occasions cheaply. This performance is also a timely one with one more match left for the home team before they face St. Thomas in the big one in March.

Most of the previous matches at this venue had delayed starts due to poor ground conditions due to weather and  if Reid Avenue was to see a full day’s cricket, this had to be the day since this will be the last match played on this ground for this season.

Royal College won the toss and selected to bat first, in form batsmen Isuru Gunathilake and Roanaka Ahangama opened the batting for Royal. Isuru’s performance disappointed as he got out for a duck. But this did not cause much damage as the rest of the batsmen had other plans. Roanaka together with the hard hitting captain Imal Liyanage bulldozed through the Thurstan bowling attack. By lunch, the pair had taken Royal to 165 runs for the loss of two wickets, in 34 overs. After lunch, with a run rate of nearly 5 per over, Royal scored runs with ease, tiring the Thurstan fielders. Then Imal who was on 92 tried to heave the ball for a six, but unfortunately fell inches short into the safe hand of the fielder in the deep.

Heshan Kumarasiri came in next, but failed to impress being out cheaply and just when Thurstan thought their worries might be over, wicketkeeper batsman Milan Abeysekara entered the field. Milan who has been in the best of form, scoring 44 runs against Wesley, took the game to Thurstan and went on to score a magnificent century. In the meantime, opener Roanaka Ahanagama who played the innings of his life had already gone past his milestone of 100 runs.  Just when you might think, after these two, it is the end, we have the two youngsters Chamika Karunarathne and Devind Pathmanathan. Chamika managed to score a quickfire 34 while Devind is still batting at 49 not out. Royal managed to score nearly 200 runs in just 35 overs in the last session of the day.

It will be interesting to see Royal’s game plan, as they still haven’t declared even after posting a mammoth total of 456 runs for the loss of 7 wickets. Maybe it is because Devind is closing on a half century. However, thus far it has been a long session of batting practice for Royal just before a crucial match against Trinity and a day to forget for Thurstan who were belted all around the ground.

With respects to the Thurstan Bowling, we have K. Silva who managed to take 2 wickets and concede 81 runs. Other than that, the bowling performance is a forgettable one. It has to be noted that, this bowling attack also conceded 344 runs against S.Peters, and will have to improve in time to perform well against Isipathana in their big match as well.  But like they say, big matches are a totally different ball game. Let’s hope for an interesting 2nd day in this tournament fixture between Royal and Thurstan.

Scores in brief

Royal College 1st Innings 456 for 7 wickets in 95 over at the end of the 1st days play (Roanaka Ahangama 131, Imal Liyanage 92, Milan Abeysekara 112, Chamika Karunarathne 34, Devind Pathmanathan 49*, K.Silva 2 for 81.)

 

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