The under 19 division 3 cricket match against Royal College Colombo and Dharmaraja College, Kandy was played yesterday and today at Reid Avenue.
With a washed off 3rd term for the boys from Cinnamon Gardens with most of their scheduled games being either called off or postponed due to the harsh saw the boys mostly engaged in fitness training which skipper Samarasinghe said “we are taking advantage of the conditions and making sure no time is lost or wasted and it will pay off in due time to come”.
The Royal skipper won the toss an invited the visitors to face leather first on a more typical Reid avenue wicket topped with a touch of green and looked to be fast as usual. Samarasinghe’s decision was justified when opening fast bowler Himesh Ramanayake sent the Dharmaraja opener Udangamuwa back to the pavilion before scoring any runs after facing 6 deliveries, which would have taken his ardent fan, mentor and father the legendary Chamapaka Ramanayake back to his days when he was feared by most oppositions.
The Kandy line up fell like a pack of cards losing wickets at regular intervals while it was a lone effort by Deshan Gunasinghe who tried to steady the ship for the Rajans scoring a painstaking 91 remaining unbeaten unfortunately as he ran out of partners as the innings folded at 197.
In the bowling department last year’s skipper and Sri Lanka under 19 skipper Chamika Karunarathne failed to impress proving costly for his single wicket for 43 runs. The damage however was done by the “left arm duo” skipper Harith and Lasith Embuldeniya.
Royal took the crease to put up a quick score and put the Rajans back to face leather but rain intervened and washed off 2 hours play.
The Royal openers did quite well putting up a decent 34 run partnership while fresher Naveen Withanapathirana went on to make 50 runs off 120 balls a rather slow inning on the contrary to his usual attacking stroke play. Randev Pathirana continued his good form notching up yet another half century scoring 67 off 110 deliveries again a rather slow inning for the usual stroke maker. Royal declared at 203/8.
Kavishka Dissanayake captured 3 for 33 while Wenuka Galahitiyawa and Tharusha Weeragoda took 2 wickets each.
The game seemed to be heading for a draw before the start of play but Chamika and Himesh made the spectator think otherwise when they sent the top three batsmen of the Dharmaraja side back to the pavilion without putting a single score on the board. Left hander Deshan Gunasinghe who scored a well fought 73 off 110 deliveries to take the game away from Royal’s grasp. The Rajan innings failed once again with the misery ending for them at 128 for 7 when the umpires called the game off. Ramanayake ended with figures of 3 for 34 while Embuldeniya ended with 2 for just 8 runs.
Chief scores
Dharmaraja College 1st innings 197 all out –( Deshan Gunasinhe 91*. Harith Samarasinghe 3/39, Lasith Embuldeniya 3/32.)
Royal College 1st innings 203/8 dec – (Naveen Withanapathirana 50, Randev Pathirana 67. Kavishka Dissanayake 3/33)
Dharmaraja College 2nd innings 128/7 – (Deshan Gunasinghe 73. Himesh Ramanayake 3/34, Lasith Embuldeniya 2/8)
Match Drawn
