Saturday, 14 March 2015 00:00
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Although rain brought a premature conclusion to the second day’s proceedings of the 136th Battle of the Blues, things were barely moving before its arrival, with S. Thomas’ trundling along to a first innings total of 182 for 1, after batting for nearly 67 overs at the SSC yesterday.
The Thomians padded up after bundling the Royalists out for an unconvincing 199 in their first innings. From that point, the action in this heady encounter fizzled out, with S. Thomas’ opening pair of Yohan Mendis and Ravindu Kodituwakku adopting a strict defensive mindset which saw the ball more often than not played tamely toward the fielders.
There was a blip in the script though as Mendis was caught in front by Pathirana for a score of 51 which came off 144 balls. Kodituwakku though did not let the dismissal affect his concentration and he continued with his measured innings, pairing up with Nipun Gamage to keep the scoreboard ticking.
Royal laboured tirelessly yet fruitlessly throughout the day, doing their utmost to dent the unyielding occupants at the crease. Prominent among this persevering lot were Chamika Karunaratne and Randev Pathirana, who ended the day with figures of 24 for 0 in 13 overs and 35 for 1 in 23 overs respectively.
At the end of day’s play, Kodituwakku was on 88 off 214 balls while Gamage had notched up 23 runs off 53 balls. They will need to up the ante if they wish to force a result against their perennial rivals, a feat which grows less likely with each passing dot ball.
