132nd Battle of the Blues:

Tailenders rescue Thomians

*Half centuries by Thomian skipper Chamod, Kavindu and Madhushan:

* Royal captain Ramith Rambukwella - 83 & 53 n.o. and 4 for 60:

Dinesh WEERAWANSA

Thomians wagged their tail strongly but Royal settled the scores by close on second day of their 132nd Battle of the Blues three-day encounter continued at SSC ground yesterday.

In reply to Royal’s first innings total of 276 for 9 declared on day one, S. Thomas’ made a rich 323 all out. Trailing by 47 runs on the first innings, another explosive half century by captain Ramith Rambukwella helped Royal to score 99 for one at close in their second essay, an overall lead of 52 runs with nine second innings wickets in hand.

Resuming the day at their overnight first innings total of 65 for 3, S.Thomas’ were in deep trouble losing the fourth wicket with the total on 69 when the overnight batsman Nuwan Kavinda was caught by Abeysekera off medium paceman Imran Khan for 36. At this stage as if the Thomians would concede a considerable lead to Royal.

But it was not so as the Thomian middle and low order batsmen played a responsible innings to make sure they go beyond 300-run mark. Kavindu Perera (61 off 80 balls with eight fours), skipper Chamod Pathirana (63 off 109 balls with ten boundaries) and No. 9 Madushan Ravichandrakumar (69 off 78 balls with nine fours) exposed all weak links in the Royal bowling department with a galaxy of strokes to keep the crowd entertained.

When Royal were looking forward to a considerable first innings lead, the Thomian middle order batsmen came in to action.

Chamod Pathirana played a truly captain’s innings and if not for his courageous knock the Thomian innings would never have been together.

He picked only the loose balls to punish while he played the good deliveries with full respect. He shared a magnificent 118-run partnership for the fifth wicket with Kavindu Perera. Royal were in a complete shock as Pathirana and Perera made it a habit of robbing runs off every Royal bowler they faced,

Then there were three quick wickets with the addition of 11 runs to the total as the Thomians were in trouble once more with the total reading 194 for 7. It was then that bowler tuned batsman Madushan Ravichandrakumar got his act together with a useful half century which eventually turned out to be the top score of the Thomian innings. Coming into the big match with a top score of only 33 and an aggregate of mere 180 plus, Ravichandrakumar posed the biggest headache and frustrated Royal bowlers during his 78-ball innings to score a blistering 69.

He shared two important partnerships which once again allowed Thomians to resurrect their innings. He added 59 runs for the eight wicket with Neomal Wickremasekera and shared a further 57-run alliance for the ninth wicket with Umesh Fernando. The last three Thomian wickets produced as many as 129 runs and that alone demonstrate the control S. Thomas’ tailenders had.

Interestingly, the match has turned out to be a top performance event of the two captains as both Ramith Rambukwella and his vis-à-vis Chamod Pathirana excelled in both bat and ball. Rambukwella (83) and Pathirana (63) made half centuries in their teams’ respective first innings. Pathirana had 5 for 101 in the Royal first innings while Rambukwella bagged 4 for 54 in the Thomian first innings. The dominance of the captains continued in the second innings too as Rambukwella made twin half centuries and remained unbeaten on 53, made off 88 balls with seven boundaries.

Today is the third and final day of the match which is set for an interesting finish if Royal go for quick runs in the morning session and set Thomains a challenging target.

ROYAL                  
1ST INNINGS 
276 for 9 decl.

(Ramith Rambukwella 83, Bhanuka Rajapaksa 55,
 Chamod Pathirana  5 for 101, Ravichandrakumar 4 for 50).


S.THOMAS’                         
 1ST INNINGS
(Overnight 65 for 3)

ASIRI WICKREMANAYAKE b. Anjana			01
JAVED BONGSO b. Deva				19
NUWAN KAVINDA c. Abeysekera b.Khan		36   
SACHIN PEIRIS lbw b. Deva			05  
KAVINDU PERERA c.Abeysekera b. Rabukwella	61
CHAMOD PATHIRANA c & b Rambukwella		63
RAMITH GUNARATNE b Rambukwella			05
NEOMAL W’SEKERA c. Dissanayake b. R’wella	27
M RAVICHANDRAKUMAR c. R’wella b. R’pakse	69
UMESH FERNANDO c. R’wella b. R’[akse		33
MEVANTHA DE SILVA not out			01               

EXTRAS:(1b, 5lb,  6w)				13
TOTAL: all out					323
BATTING TIME:  77.5 overs 
FALL OF WICKETS:  1-1 (Wickremanayake), 2-48 (Bongso), 3-60 (S. Peiris), 4-69 (Kavinda), 
5-183 (Perera),  6-193 (Gunaratne), 7-194 (Pathirana), 8-253 (Wickremasekera), 9-310 (Fernando), 10-323 (Ravichandrakumar). 
BOWLING:  Khan 11-0-60-1, Kudahetti 6-1-26-1; Rajapakse 16.2-1-69-2, Deva 10-1-61-2;,
 Pathmanathan 13-4-35-0,  Rambukwella 19-4-54-4,  Dissanayake 2-0-22-0.

 
ROYAL                   
2ND INNINGS 

WARUNA DISSANAYAKE c. Peiris b. Wickremasekera	12                      
RAMITH RAMBUKWELLA not out			53                                  
SUPUN SUBASINGHE not out			31                

EXTRAS:(2b)					02                
TOTAL: for 1 wkt at close			99                            
BATTING TIME:  29.4 overs                     
FALL OF WICKETS:   1-32 (Dissanayake)
BOWLING:  (to date): Pathirana 8.4-0-37-0; De Silva 7-3-12-0;  Wickremasekera 6-1-21-1, U. Fernando 4-0-9-0, Ravichandrakumar 4-1-18-0