Yet another tame, tedious draw at Royal-Thomian
Thomian captain Fernando finally fires top-scoring 74
Gishan Balasooriya, the Royal captain, and Ryan Fernando, the Thomian captain, pose with the prestiegious D.S.Senanayake Memorial Challenge Shield. Also pictured are Rev. Marc Billimoria, the Warden of S. Thomas' College, Supun Weerasinghe, Group Chief Executive, Dialog Axiata, Sanath Jayalath, the Principal of Royal College, Kapila Wijegunawardena, Guest of Honour, K. Pathmanathan, the Managing Director of Taian Steels and S, Roshan Adams, Co-chairman of Royal-Thomian Joint Organising Committee
World’s second-oldest and uninterrupted cricket series between – S. Thomas and Royal – colleges unsurprisingly ended on another dull draw, but the dying moments of the game saw batting brilliance from the Thomian captain Ryan Fernando concluding the contest with a superb 74 yesterday at the SSC grounds.
The encounter, played behind closed doors, came to a close ultimately when the 2019 champions Thomians, with a lead of 165, retained the D. S. Senanayake Shield.
When they embarked on their second essay, they lost Senadhi Bulankulame cheaply. However, their first innings lazy and lethargy start returned to haunt them.
To spice the passage of play, skipper Gishan Balasooriya got down to business, introducing him into the attack. The move instantly rewarded, removing Janindu Abeygoonawardena. He soon prompted Dineth Gunawardena to drive but met only with misfortune disturbing the stumps.
The pair for the fourth-wicket, comprising in-form captain – Ryan Fernando and Muiz Naushan – took matters into their hands. They slowly and steadily stitched a 50-run stand. Fernando, a first innings flop, played that skipper’s innings in the school-level match that mattered the most. The 59-run stand was eventually separated though, when Royal’s lone U19 player Sadisha Rajapaksha, got his first.
The U19 player bought up his fifty cracking the ball to long-on, modestly celebrating and went on to top score with 74.
Royal skipper and spinner Gishan Balasooriya in action
Fernando, initially, dropped off Balasooriya in a captain-to-captain battle, ultimately did perish to him for the second-straight time in the match. Balasooriya finished the match with six-wickets.
The third and the final day, a buzzing day under normal circumstances, started with great and grey fielding displays.
The first such drop of the day was, Ramiru Perera, in the second over of the day, spilt when a tough chance of his was dropped in the second slips.
However, Thomians made quick amends, when Uvindu Weerasekara, the overnight half-century maker (66), supposed to steer his side, didn’t last long and was caught at slips. Fernando, the catcher on that occasion, spilt a sitter gifting another lease of life to Perera.
Royalists, unfathomably, were lacking that swift scoring rate they had in the second day. Making use of the back foot stance of their opponents, Kavindu Dias, in particular was on the money removing Weerasekara and denying the batsmen from settling in.
Fresher, Akash Fernando, would’ve had his first victim in the big match series, had Perera, enjoying series of dropped catches, and was dropped for the second time in the slips. But breaking the boring passage of play, the 17-year-old first timer finally found his first victim, enticing Ramiru Perera to drive, only to disturb his leg-side timber.
It was a captain's innings from the Thomian skipper Ryan Fernando
Royal from Reid Avenue trying hard to infuse interest had moments of muddle in the middle. Looking to rotate the strike they also had to tackle thrills and spills.
Exactly on the stroke of lunch, deputy Caniston Gunaratnam got his second when Nethin Panapitiya ended his painstakingly slow-innings throwing his wicket at deep fine-leg. The right-arm Gunaratnam would have made it a wicket-taking pre- and post-lunch session, if not for a fumble and missing out on running-out Sandesh Ramanayake.
Ramanayake, in the company of their captain Balasooriya, in a now-or-never moment, began to free his arms. But that was only short-lived in switching gears as he was soon trapped by Dias, finishing with four scalps and the declaration followed suit trailing by 23-runs.
Charuka Peiris sprinting from long-on, virtually collided, however, managed to complete without any more fumbling in their fielding.
| SCORECARD | |
| S. Thomas’ College 1st innings 242 all out (106.2) (Senesh Hettiarachchi 55, Charuka Peiris 51 not out, Mahith Perera 33, Gishan Balasooriya 2/56, Sandesh Ramanayake 2/16, Ramiru Perera 2/36)Royal 1st innings (O’night 136 for 4) (Uvindu Weerasekara 62*, Sineth Jayawardena 32, Kavindu Dias 2/38, Gunaratnam Caniston 1/43)Uvindu Weerasekara C Fernando b Dias 66 Dasis Manchanayake lbw b Gunaratnam 17 Ramiru Perera b Fernando 34 Nethin Panapitya c Perera b Gunaratnam 27 Sandesh Ramanayake c Peiris b Dias 21 Gishan Balasooriya not out 01 Extras: (wd 2, nb 2, lb 5, b 1) 10 Total: (8 wickets declared; 70.4 overs) 219 Fall of wickets: 3-1 (Sanvidu Senaratharachchi, 1.5 ov), 15-2 (Sadisha Rajapaksha, 5.5 ov), 73-3 (Sineth Jayawardena, 13.5 ov), 105-4 (Dasis Manchanayake, 25.2 ov), 147-5 (Uvindu Weerasekara, 43 ov), 178-6 (Ramiru Perera, 59.4 ov), 202-7 (Nethil Panapitiya, 67.2 ov), 219-8 (Sandesh Ramanayake, 70.4 ov) Bowling: Caniston Gunaratnam 23-1-67-2, Kavindu Dias 17.4-2-65-4, Akash Fernando 9-1-33-1, Janindu Abeygoonawardena 4-0-6-1, Charuka Peiris 6-0-22-0, Ryan Fernanndo 11-5-15-0 Did not bat: Dan Poddiwela and Bulan Weerathunga S. Thomas’ College 2nd innings Shenadhi Bulankulama c Jayawardena B Poddiwela 02 Janindu Abeygoonawardena c Weerasekara b Balasooriya 07 Dineth Gunawardena b Gishan 01 Ryan Fernando c Rajapaksha b Balasooriya 74 Muizz Naushan lbw b Rajapaksha 11 Senesh Hettiarahchci c Ramanayake b Rajapaksha 28 Mahith Perera not out 08 Caniston Gunaratnam not out 11 Extras: (wd 1, lb 1) 02 Total: (6 wickets; 64 overs) 142 Bowling: Dan Poddiwela 4-2-3-1, Sandesh Ramanayake 3-3-0-0, Bulan Weerathunga 4-1-17-0, Sadisha Rajapaksha 18-7-32-2, Gishan Balasooriya 20-5-56-3, Ramiru Perera 13-2-32-0, Dasis Manchanayake 2-1-3-0 Did not bat: Kavindu Dias, Akash Fernando, Charuka Peiris |