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De Mel, Fernando star as S. Thomas’ take honours on day 1 of Battle of the Blues

141st Battle of the Blues | Day 1

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Shalin de Mel (85) and Ryan Fernando (70) propped S. Thomas’ College up on day 1 of the 141st Battle of the Blues encounter as the School by the Sea finished on 271/6 after being sent in to bat by Royal College.

De Mel and opening partner Dilmin Rathnayake survived the all-important first hour of play, despite the best efforts of Kavindu Pathirathne, who got the ball to move early on. The right-arm quick did manage to cause a bit of trouble with the new ball, troubling Rathnayake in particular. Rathnayake was lucky to survive a few streaky shots and was given a life when he was dropped at gully in the 11th over but nevertheless he and his partner de Mel put on a valuable 49-run stand to give S. Thomas’ a steady start.

Photos: Royal College vs S. Thomas’ College | 141st Battle of the Blues – Day 01

Pathirathne didn’t receive much support from the other hand, but bowled an excellent, long spell to start things off at the Royal-Thomian and was justly rewarded when he trapped Rathnayake right in front with a full delivery. Ravindu de Silva, the man everyone had been talking about prior to the game, did not last long in the middle, stumped off the bowling of Gishan Balasooriya. 

De Mel and Ryan Fernando then put Royal to the sword, putting away the loose deliveries, which the boys from Reid Avenue dished up regularly, and putting S Thomas’ in a commanding position by mid-day. De Mel was just beginning to get into his stride but fell agonizingly close to what would have been an excellent century, top edging a delivery from Royal skipper Senaratne to fall for 85. Kishan Munasinghe was sent in ahead of both Umayanga Suwaris and Gavin Botheju but had no answer to a quicker delivery from Kamil Mishara, bowled for a duck to put the game back in the balance. Mishara, who is known more for his batting and his work behind the stumps, was utilized well by Royal, as he tied up one end with Fernando and Botheju at the crease. 

With Royal’s two frontline spinners Balasooriya and Prashan Kalhara going for runs, skipper Senaratne was forced to use himself as well as the likes of Mishara and Dasis Manchanayake extensively. Manchanayake got the crucial breakthrough when he trapped the well set Ryan fernando right in front of the stumps. Umayanga Suwaris, who was looking good in the middle, was sent back by Lahiru Madushanka in the third session before fresher Gavin Botheju and Manisha Rupasinghe dug in to take the Thomians through to stumps.

Fan Photos: Royal College vs S. Thomas’ College | 141st Battle of the Blues – Day 01

Royal did have their chances in the field throughout the day, with three catches going down in the slip cordon and Mishara missing an easy opportunity to run Fernando out at the non-striker’s end in the 2nd session. Despite this, they did put on a good show with their ground fielding and put on a far more disciplined performance in the 3rd session of play to dry up the runs. Pathirathne was no doubt the star with the ball for Royal, his figures of 1/60 not really reflecting how well he bowled throughout the day.

The Thomians did finish the day slightly ahead of Royal, but with 6 wickets already back in the hut, the latter will look to clean up the rest of the Thomian batting line-up as early as possible on day 2.

As always, you can catch the LIVE action of the 141st Battle of the Blues on ThePapare.com and Dialog TV from 9 am onwards on the 13th and 14th of March.

Result

Match drawn

Royal College
282/8 (104.3)

S. Thomas’ College
369/10 (128.2) & 127/5 (48)

Batsmen R B 4s 6s SR
Dilmin Rathnayake lbw b Kavindu Pathirathna 23 36 2 0 63.89
Shalin De Mel c Kaushan Kulasooriya b Thevindu Senarathna 85 135 7 2 62.96
R de Silva st Kavindu Madarasinghe b Gishan Balasuriya 6 9 1 0 66.67
Ryan Fernando lbw b Dasis Manchanayake 70 145 9 0 48.28
Kishan Munasinghe b Kamil Mishara 0 1 0 0 0.00
G Botheju run out () 54 176 1 0 30.68
U Suwaris c Kavindu Pathirathna b L Madusanka 21 42 2 0 50.00
Maneesha Perera Rupasinghe run out () 25 80 1 0 31.25
Yasiru Rodrigo lbw b Kavindu Pathirathna 5 4 1 0 125.00
Thevin Bimsara Eriyagama st b Kamil Mishara 47 91 4 0 51.65
Caniston not out 10 52 0 0 19.23


Extras 23 (b 15 , lb 2 , nb 1, w 5, pen 0)
Total 369/10 (128.2 Overs, RR: 2.88)
Fall of Wickets 1-49 (14.2) Dilmin Rathnayake, 2-56 (17.1) R de Silva, 3-156 (42.6) Shalin De Mel, 4-156 (43.1) Kishan Munasinghe, 5-208 (62.1) Ryan Fernando, 6-244 (74.4) U Suwaris, 7-294 (100.3) Maneesha Perera Rupasinghe, 8-301 (102.1) Yasiru Rodrigo, 9-310 (106.4) G Botheju, 10-369 (128.2) Thevin Bimsara Eriyagama,

Bowling O M R W Econ
Kavindu Pathirathna 32 6 85 1 2.66
L Madusanka 13.2 0 31 1 2.35
Thevindu Senarathna 14.4 1 52 1 3.61
Gishan Balasuriya 23.2 3 68 2 2.93
Prashan kalhara 16 4 34 0 2.12
Kamil Mishara 21 4 55 1 2.62
Dasis Manchanayake 8 0 27 1 3.38
Batsmen R B 4s 6s SR
Kaushan Kulasooriya c Shalin De Mel b Kishan Munasinghe 31 110 3 0 28.18
Kamil Mishara c Shalin De Mel b Kishan Munasinghe 32 106 2 0 30.19
Kavindu Madarasinghe c G Botheju b Thevin Bimsara Eriyagama 23 43 2 0 53.49
Ahan Wickramasinghe c Dilmin Rathnayake b Caniston 24 40 3 0 60.00
Isiwara Dissanayake lbw b Yasiru Rodrigo 42 118 4 0 35.59
Kavindu Pathirathna b U Suwaris 8 37 0 0 21.62
Thevindu Senarathna c Yasiru Rodrigo b U Suwaris 8 9 2 0 88.89
Dasis Manchanayake not out 53 103 6 0 51.46
L Madusanka c G Botheju b Yasiru Rodrigo 29 57 5 0 50.88
Prashan kalhara not out 5 9 0 0 55.56


Extras 27 (b 10 , lb 0 , nb 8, w 4, pen 5)
Total 282/8 (104.3 Overs, RR: 2.7)
Fall of Wickets 1-61 (32.3) Kaushan Kulasooriya, 2-81 (40.3) Kamil Mishara, 3-104 (45.1) Kavindu Madarasinghe, 4-123 (53.3) Ahan Wickramasinghe, 5-169 (68.5) Kavindu Pathirathna, 6-177 (72.2) Thevindu Senarathna, 7-201 (80.4) Isiwara Dissanayake, 8-268 (102) L Madusanka,

Bowling O M R W Econ
Yasiru Rodrigo 26 8 52 2 2.00
Caniston 15 3 35 1 2.33
Thevin Bimsara Eriyagama 13.3 4 44 1 3.31
Kishan Munasinghe 19 6 38 2 2.00
Dilmin Rathnayake 9 0 32 0 3.56
U Suwaris 18 4 55 2 3.06
Shalin De Mel 4 0 11 0 2.75


Batsmen R B 4s 6s SR
Dilmin Rathnayake st Kavindu Madarasinghe b Gishan Balasuriya 22 36 2 1 61.11
Shalin De Mel c L Madusanka b Kamil Mishara 5 23 0 0 21.74
R de Silva lbw b Gishan Balasuriya 4 9 0 0 44.44
Ryan Fernando c L Madusanka b Gishan Balasuriya 34 66 5 0 51.52
G Botheju not out 36 77 5 0 46.75
U Suwaris c Prashan kalhara b Gishan Balasuriya 5 18 1 0 27.78
Kishan Munasinghe not out 16 60 1 0 26.67


Extras 5 (b 2 , lb 2 , nb 1, w 0, pen 0)
Total 127/5 (48 Overs, RR: 2.65)
Fall of Wickets 1-26 (9.1) Shalin De Mel, 2-10 (10.4) Dilmin Rathnayake, 3-31 (12.1) R de Silva, 4-76 (28.2) Ryan Fernando, 5-83 (32.5) U Suwaris,

Bowling O M R W Econ
Kavindu Pathirathna 6 0 22 0 3.67
Kamil Mishara 13 2 23 1 1.77
Gishan Balasuriya 18 5 50 4 2.78
Prashan kalhara 3 0 7 0 2.33
L Madusanka 3 1 6 0 2.00
Dasis Manchanayake 4 1 11 0 2.75
Thevindu Senarathna 1 0 4 0 4.00