Royal resistance rewarded by rain
Thomian skipper Romesh Nallaperuma, who made 92, is consoled by Royal team members after he was dismissed eight runs short of a well deserved century - Pix by Ranjith Perera
Royal who were struggling for survival in their second innings in the post lunch session on the final day of their 138th Battle of the Blues against traditional rivals S. Thomas’ at the SCC ground were saved by Thevindu Senaratne and Ahan Wickramasinghe who together came to their rescue with a valuable 68 runs stand for the sixth wicket.
Royal left with the task of erasing a deficit of 102 runs found themselves in a spot of bother with five of their top batsmen back in the pavilion with just 61 runs on the board when they found the two saviors’ in Thevinda and Ahan.
When the pair joined together at the fall of the fifth wicket they were left with the responsibility of taking Royal out of the woods and to some extent the duo kept the Thomian bowlers at bay.Added to that the pair was helped by missed catches which the fielders should take the blame.
Royal began their second innings on a disastrous manner, but credit cannot be taken away from the efforts put in by the Thomian bowlers and fielders in the early stages.
The Thomian bowlers gave the Royal batsmen some torrid moments and had them struggling on 23 for 2 at the lunch break. The post lunch session saw Royal wickets falling like nine pins and within just under 14 overs they were back to the walls on 61 for 5 before the pair Thevindu and Ahan came to the rescue.
They went into the tea break on 147 for 8 having faced 39 overs but as in the first two days of play the light began to fade and only 20 balls were possible (3.2 overs) after tea break before the covers were brought in, that signalled the end of proceedings of the 138th Battle of Blues
The three days of play which was hampered by bad light after the tea break saw 93 overs of play being lost.
The morning session proceedings saw the Thomian overnight pair skipper Romesh Nallapperuma and Sithara Hapuhinna having on day two added a valuable 81 runs and the score on 255 for 4 being unable to make any headway as they were separated after adding ten runs with Hapuhinna being dismissed for 59 runs having associated in a partnership of 91 runs for the fifth wicket.
Later skipper Nallapperuma who was 37 at this stage was able to reach his half ton and in the process added 38 runs for the sixth wicket with Ishen Perera.
Royal speedster Himesh Ramanayake captured four scalps
From here on, with the top batsmen back in the pavilion, the Thomians had only to look forward and see whether their skipper would be able to get his ton.
Nallapperuma on 56 at the fall of the sixth wicket was forced to watch losing his partners at the other end but he succeeded to accumulate his runs with ease and with the Thomians on 357 for 8 all hopes of a Nallapperuma ton was dashed as he misread a delivery from his counterpart Helitha Vithanage being dismissed for 92 which came off 131 balls that included 11 boundaries which saw the Thomians declaring their innings.
| Scoreboard Royal 1st innings 255 (Ganith Sandeepa 42, Himesh Ramanayake 41, Kavindu Madarasinghe 38, Pasindu Sooriyabandara 35, Ronuka Jayawardena 32: Kalana Perera 5 for 47, Pavith Ratnayake 2 for 69) S. Thomas’ 1st innings Royal 2nd innings |