14th Battle of the Hindus Jaffna Hindu in the box seat as 22 wickets fall on Day 1

By P.D. De Silva 

Jaffna Hindu College were in the box seat with a 152-run lead and eight wickets in hand as 22 wickets fell on the first day of the 14th edition of the Battle of the Hindus, which commenced at the Jaffna Hindu College ground yesterday.

Electing to bat first, the home team were dismissed for 172 runs with V. Yuvaraj claiming four wickets, while P. Sri Nithushan and R. Dheskar claimed two each. A. Vithushan was unlucky to be dismissed on 49.

K. Nitheesh also claimed a four-fer to restrict Hindu College Colombo to 91 runs. T. Santhosh was the only batsman to defy the Jaffna Hindu bowlers with 42 runs, of which 32 runs were scored with hits to the rope. 

In their second essay, Jaffna Hindu were 71/2 at stumps with a lead of 152 runs and eight more wickets in hand.

Brief scores: (Day 1 stumps)

Jaffna Hindu College 172/10 (43.5) (K. Pareshshith 20, A. Vithushan 49; P. Sri Nithushan 2-24, R. Dheskar 2-39, V. Yuvaraj 4-27) and 71/2 (16) (K. Pareshshith 39, A. Vithushan 20*, Sutharshan Subaran 11*)

Hindu College Colombo 91/10 (32.5) (T. Santhosh 42; Sutharsan Subaran 2-31, A. Vithushan 2-16, K. Nitheesh 4-12)