- 145th Battle of the Blues (Day 2) – Live from Brumbies Tent
Royal College survived the second day’s play against some determined bowling by S Thomas’ College to end at 234 for 7 in reply to 297 made by their opponents in the 145th Battle of the Blues cricket encounter at the Sinhalese Sports Club ground on Friday.
The game is fizzling out towards a stalemate and another drab draw is on the cards unless the unimaginable happens.
Pundits may declare the second day’s proceedings as a win-win or no-win situation for either party, but the day certainly belonged to three players, Royal batter and captain Sineth Jayawardena and Thomian bowlers Ashen Perera and Darien Diego who accounted for six of the seven wickets to fall on the day.
Jayawardena held the Royal innings together as wickets kept falling and safely took Royal to tea at 160 for 4 having slumped from 127 for 2 at one time during the post lunch session.
Jayawardena missed what would have been a well grafted and patient century when he lofted a ball from off-spinner Darien Diego into the hands of the mid-off fielder in only the fourth over after tea with 92 runs to his name.
Jayawardena faced as many as 172 balls hitting 13 fours and his dismissal was just the boost that the Thomians needed to believe the contest is still in their hands. The Royal skipper’s exit was made an over after his aggressive batting partner Ramiru Perera was out LBW to Darien Diego for 23 in the second over after the break.
The accuracy of the Thomian bowlers was told in the Royal scoreboard that showed them making their 234 for 7 in as many as 86 overs striking at a painstaking run rate of 2.72 runs per over.
The day began just the way the Thomians would have wanted when fast bowler Ashen Perera snapped up Royal opener Isula Geeganage leg-before without scoring and soon followed by co-opener Rehan Peiris having his stumps rattled by Akash Fernando for 1.
But it was Ashen Perera who continued to keep the Thomians in the hunt for wickets as he also sent back Ovina Ambanpola for 36 while holding on to a return catch and then accounted for the seventh and last wicket of the day when he had Dinura Senaratne caught behind for 33 before bad light halted proceedings. The match was called off with nine overs still left to play.
The seventh wicket marked a set-back for Royal after they recovered from 164 for 6 through a 69-run alliance between Senaratne and Nethwin Dharmaratne who was unbeaten on 29 at the end of the second day and still in need of 63 more runs to level the Thomians first innings score.
This report is brought to you from the Brumbies Tent at the SSC Ground.
