The Royalists will have the edge going into the second day due an assured bowling performance spearheaded by the brilliant bowling of Chamika Karunarathne who became the first bowler for Royal since 1993 to take a five wicket haul in an innings.
Royal College won the toss and elected to field first on the first day of the 134th Battle of the Blues played at the Singhalese Sports Club (SSC). Devin Pathmanathan deemed that it was good to win the toss, especially in a big game like Royal-Thomian.
Deelaka Herath and Nipuna Gamage put up an opening partnership of only 14 runs before Chamika Karunarathne struck taking the wicket of Herath who completely missed Chamika’s delivery only to find his stumps rattled.
The Thomian Captain Javed Bongso followed suit after a promising start. Bongso found himself plumb in front, falling to a brilliant in-swinging delivery from Chamika who picked up his second scalp. Gamage and the Devin Jayasinghe managed to put up a partnership of 30 runs, but the fresher Gamage failed to keep his composure as he tried to sweep Poorna Aluthge only to find the top edge of his bat with Karunarathne taking an easy catch.
Devin Jayasinghe and Thilaksha Sumanasiri looked to be a dangerous pair, with the latter playing very aggressively. Devin wasn’t too nice either as he heaved Hashen Ramanayake over midwicket to score a huge six. However, in an unfortunate turn of events for the Thomians, the pair had a mix-up resulting in Sumanasiri being run out. Sanitha De Mel fell shortly as Chamika took his third wicket.
The Thomians were reeling at 100 runs for the loss of 5 wickets by lunch, and needed a strong partnership to take them through. Devin and Helakamal Nanayakkara provided this platform with a magnificent 60 run partnership. Devin who scored 74 runs failed to make it to his century, as he tried to come down the wicket eventually missing the ball giving wicket-keeper Milan Abeysekara enough time to take the bails off.
The Thomian lower order toiled hard, as they managed to put up another 40 runs, with R. Thilakarathne scoring the bulk of it with a brilliant knock under pressure. Thilakarathne, ensured he gave less strike as possible to the new batsmen taking the responsibility, as he frustrated the Royalists. In the meantime, Chamika completed his five wicket haul taking the wicket of S. Wijeysinghe.
However, both the Royalist fast bowlers were found wanting in terms of fitness. Anupa Thilkarathne and Chamika failed to complete the full day on the field as they seemed to be suffering from side strains. M. Ravichandrakumar will be extremely disappointed with his performance being the more senior player in the side; he managed to score only 1 run.
After a frustrating second session that was stretched until tea by the Thomians who were on 180 for 9 wickets, the Royalists managed to bag the final scalp of I Kularathne who nicked it the ball to Sampath De Silva off Pathmanathan’s bowling.
The Royalists began their innings positively with Raonaka Ahangama scoring back to back boundaries. However, just as the Royal run chase began rain which was expected much earlier in the day thundered down halting play, as the umpires deemed conditions unfit.
Play will resume tomorrow at 9.45am.
Match Summary
S. Thomas’ College 1st Innings – 193 all out in 73.2 overs
(Devin Jayasinghe 74, R. Thilakarathne 26*, Helakamal Nanayakkara 24, Chamika Karunarathne 5/55, Poorna Aluthge 2/22)
Royal College 1st Innings – 11 for no loss in 1.2 overs
(Raonaka Ahangama 8*, Isuru Gunathilake 1*)
