St. John’s Jaffna coast to easy win
St. John’s Jaffna coasted to an easy and massive 139-runs win over traditional rivals Jaffna Central in their 12th Battle of the North limited over encounter played at St. John’s ground in Jaffna yesterday to regain the limited over trophy after two years.
Half tons by Paramananthan Thuvarakaseelan and Vasanthan Jathusan saw St. John’s Jaffna winning the toss and electing to take first lease of the wicket to pile up a formidable score of 273 which laid the foundation for the easy victory. The Johnians was given a flying start by Manivannan Sinthurjan and Sajenthiran Kabilraj with the pair putting on 85 runs in 80 balls before they were separated.
This was followed by another valuable partnership of 84 runs for the fifth wicket between Thuvarakaseelan who made a 56 ball 53 with six boundaries and Jathusan making a contribution of 52 which included five boundaries.
The duo’s dismissal saw the Johnians score reaching 246 for 7 in the 48th over. The remaining two overs saw Arulanantham Ghnanamirthan and Mahalingam Nilojan adding a valuable 27 runs for the eighth wicket to end in a strong position in the first session of play.
Jaffna Central in pursuit of 274 runs were no where near the target as in the halfway stage of the innings they were struggling on 91 for 5. The Centralite batsmen struggled to come in terms with left arm spin duo Raviendran Lohathieswar and Vasanthan Jathusan.
The pair shared seven wickets between them with Lohathieswar ending with impressive figures of 4 for 21 to bundle the Centralites for a low score of 134.
St. John’s Jaffna 273 for 8 in 50 overs (Paramananthan Thuvarakaseelan 53, Vasanthan Jathusan 52, Manivannan Sinthurjan 46, Sajenthiran Kabilraj 39, Arulanantham Ghnanamirthan 24, Mahalingam Nilojan 22: Sivarasa Mathusan 4 for 34)
Jaffna Central 134 all out in 38.4 overs (Sivapathasuntharam Alan Raj 45, Kaliyugavarathan Sansayan 22: Raviendran Lohathieswar 4 for 21, Vasanthan Jathusan 3 for 29) – MSA