Antonians in strong position

Battle of the Blues 102nd encounter 

Winning the toss on a flat wicket, Antonians piled up a huge 298 for 8 in their 102nd ‘Battle of the Blues’ encounter against Trinity College, which commenced at Katugastota yesterday.

Opener Chamidu Wickremasinghe (128) and Ashitha Wanniarachchi (54) batted with lot of authority and confidence. Chamidu stroked a brilliant century, which included only four boundaries and one six in his knock, while Wanniarachchi’ knock was more of a brisk one which consisted of 11 delightful boundaries. Both put on 88 for the first wicket with useful contribution coming in later on from skipper Theeksha Gunasinghe (25), Lasith Weralagama (21) and Thamashana Abeykoon (21). 

Antonian skipper Theeksha Gunasinghe went past 1,000 runs this season during his knock. There was hardly any help for either the fast bowlers or the spinners on the flat wicket in the first session at Katugastota, but the Trinity bowlers Kavishka Senadheera and Abesheik Anandakumar, both bowling with good line and length, were rewarded with six wickets between them. Kavishka Senadheera fought back with his spin bowling in the afternoon by taking four wickets for the Trinitians while Abesheik supported him with two from his account.

Trinity, taking lease of the wicket, were soon in trouble, losing out Shane Gunatilake cheaply. Abesheik and Chanuka batted through some anxious moments before stumps were drawn at Katugastota yesterday.

(SJ)

Kavishka Senadheera main threat for the Katugastota schoool​