Royal take command and falter

132nd Battle of the Blues

By M. Shamil Amit

Royal after their top order batsmen had things under control faltered as they lost wickets at regular intervals during play after the lunch session on day one in their 132nd Battle of the Blues encounter against traditional rivals S. Thomas’ played at the SSC ground yesterday.

After being invited to take first lease of the wicket the Royalist were given a sound start of 91 by openers Waruna Dissanayake and skipper Ramith Rambukwella.  

The Thomian fielding was a bit sloppy as their fielders grassed catches at crucial stages. They went into lunch on 109 for 1 but lost four wickets between lunch and tea as they slid to 231 for 5 before making a declaration with the score on 276 for 9.

Skipper Ramith who was dropped when he was 29 went on to make 83 which had eight boundaries while Bhanuka Rajapakse who was given a life at 24 made a quick fire 55 with five boundaries and two sixes.

Thomian skipper Chamod Pathirana who bowled himself 28 overs though taking five wickets gave away 101 runs while Madushan Ravichandrakumar ended with figures of 4 for 50.

The Thomians in their turn facing 14 overs ended the day making 65 for 3 with Nuwan Kavinda remaining unbeaten on 32 made off 35 balls which included six boundaries.

scoreboard

Royal first inning

Waruna Dissanayake    lbw b Ravjchandrakumar        42

Ramith Rambukwella    c Peiris b Pathirana            83

Supun Subasinghe    c Bongso b Pathirana        19

Bhanuka Rajapakse    c Bongso b Pathirana        55

Imal Liyanage        c Perera b Ravichnadrakumar    27

Heshan Kumarasiri    c    Peiris b Pathirana            02

Milan Abeysekera        c Peiris b Pathirana            16

Devind Pathmanathan    b Ravichandrakumjar        07

Gaurav Deva        not out                06

Imran Khan        lbw b Ravichandrakumar        00

Extras    (b9, lb2, wd2, nb6)                    19

Total    (for 9 wickets declared, 66.2 overs)    276

Fall – 1-91, 2-147, 3-164, 4-205, 5-217, 6-247, 7-259, 8-276, 9-276

Bowling – Chamod Pathirana 28-4-101-5, Mevantha de Silva 8-1-28-0, Umesh Fernando 16-1-69-0, Madushan Ravichandrakumar 12.2-0-50-4, Neomal Wickramasekera 1-0-6-0, Nuwan Kavinda 1-0-11-0.

S. Thomas’ first inning

Asiri Wickramanayake        b Kudattie        01

Javed Bongso            b Deva            19

Nuwan Kavinda            not out            32

Sachin Peiris            lbw b Deva        05

Kavindu Perera            not out            04

Extras    (lb3, wd1)                    04

Total    (for 3 wickets, 14 overs)                65

Fall – 1-1, 2-48, 3-60

Bowling – Imran Khan 4-0-25-0, Anjan Kudahetti 3-0-19-1, Bhanuka Rajapakse 4-1-7-0, Gaurav Deva 3-0-11-2.