104th Battle of the North

Jaffna Central continued their dominance in their big match against traditional rivals St John’s when they recorded a four wicket win in their 104th ‘Battle of the North’ encounter concluded at the Jaffna Central ground in Jaffna yesterday.

Jaffna Central chasing 131 (resuming on their overnight score of 33 for 2) needed just 33 overs to reach the target. The first day’s play saw St John’s taking first lease of the wicket being guided by Vivekanantharajah Harivathanan who rescued them with a fine knock of 85.

Vivekanantharajah Harivathanan of St. John’s Jaffna who made 85 on the first day of the game in action. (Picture by Ranjith Perera)

Harivathanan in the process put on a valuable stand for the fifth wicket of 51 runs with Vivekanantharajah Pranavan helping the side recover when they were struggling 70 for 3 to make 165.

Harivathanan then troubled the Johanian batting before skipper James Jansen who made 50 and Gnanaseelan Jerikthusan who chipped in with 46 rescuing them with a 92 runs stand for the fifth wicket.

But left arm pacie Harivathanan took control of the game after the pair was separated as he ended with impressive figures of 7 for 39 to restrict the Johnians to 159.

St. John’s batting the second time were unable to make any headway as the left and right arm pace combination of Thangarajah Tharshan and Ravi Vathushanan wrecked the opponents batting as they shared eight wickets between them to bundle out Johanians for just 124.

The all round performance put in by Johanians Harivathanan was in vain as it could not prevent them from being beaten.

St John’s 165 (Vivekanantharajah Harivathanan 85, Vivekanantharajah Pranavan 29, Jesuthasan Adrian 18: Thangarajah Tharshan 3 for 23, Gnanaseelan Jerikthusan 3 for 53, Ravi Vathushanan 2 for 30) and 124 (Sritharan Priytharshan 33, Thangarajah Jerusan 20: Thangarajah Tharshan 4 for 20, Ravi Vathushanan 4 for 22)

Jaffna Central (110/4 o’night) 159 (James Jansen 50, Gnanaseelan Jerikthusan 46, Neelamegam Thivakar 26: Vivekanantharajah Harivathanan 7 for 39, Singarajah Duckshan 2 for 28) and (33/2 o’night) 131 for 6 (James Jansen 35, Nagarasa Jenosan 25 n.o., Jeyanthiran Ratheesan 17 n.o. Ravi Vathushanan 2 for 36, Vivekanandan Harivathanan 2 for 48)