Friday, 13 March 2015 00:00
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Royal College were at the receiving end of a blue and black-streaked bowling blitz, as S. Thomas swiftly sliced through the Royalists’ batting ranks to bundle them out for a first innings score of 199, after the opening day of the 136th Battle of the Blues at the SSC yesterday.
At one point Royal looked uncertain to make it to 150, following a monumental top-order tumble which had them lagging at 86 for 5 after they were put into bat by the Thomians. However, Harith Samarasinghe and Chamika Karunaratne engineered a sixth wicket salvage operation which propelled them to 173 before Karunaratne was caught off the bowling of Helakamal Nanayakkara.
His batting cohort in Royal’s rescue then departed the following over to trigger another domino-like collapse in the batting line-up, which this time was not averted by inspired batting but brought the Royal innings to an end.
Apart from Karunaratne’s 62-ball 57, which featured 8 fours and 2 sixes, and Samarasinghe’s 35, there was hardly anything regal about Royal’s batting excursion. Sacintha jayathilake was the pick of the Thomian bowlers with figures of 3 for 27.
In reply, S. Thomas’ finished the day on 50 for 0, with Yohan Mendis (25 from 72 balls) and Ravindu Kodituwakku (14 from 86 balls) remaining circumspect in the middle in an effort to avoid the loose stroke-play of their perennial rivals.
