Chris Dhambarage
COLOMBO : Half centuries from Sadev Soysa and Dineth Gunawardena helped S. Thomas’ College amass a formidable 297 in their first innings on the opening day of the 145th Battle of the Blues Inter-School Big Match against the traditional rivals Royal College played at the SSC Grounds in Maitland Place today.
Sadev hammered a splendid 83 in 134 balls that included 11 boundaries while Deneth made a solid 50 with the aid of eight boundaries.
Sadev was involved in two valuable partnerships. He first figured in an opening-wicket stand of 66 runs with Senadhi Bulankulame and added another 66 runs for the second wicket with Dineth, who shared a 58-run stand for the third wicket with Skipper Mahith Perera.
During the later stages of the innings, Nathan Caldera and Akash Fernando put on 60 runs for the sixth wicket but they lost their remaining four wickets for the addition of 11 runs and were bowled out for 297 runs.
For Royal, the Skipper Sineth Jayawardena and Ramiru Perera spin pair shared eight wickets between them.
SCOREBOARD
S. Thomas’ 1st innings
S. Soyza c Bandara b Jayawardena 83
S. Bulankulame c Peiris b Jayawardena 13
D. Gunawardena c and b Perera 50
M. Perera lbw b Jayawardena 36
T. Eheliyagoda c Perera b Dharmarathne 16
N. Caldera c Weerathunga b Perera 44
A. Fernando b Malaviarachchi 29
K. Dias c Dissanayake b Perera 05
D. Diego c Jayawardena b Perera 05
A. Perera c Bandara b Jayawardena 01
A. Paranawidana not out 00
Extras: (b9, nb1, w5) 15
Total: (All out in 88.2 overs) 297
Fall: 1-66, 2-132, 3-190, 4-200, 5-226, 6-286, 7-286, 8-292, 9-297
Bowling: R. Malaviarachchi 16-0-55-1, D. Senaratne 11-2-33-0, B. Weeratunga 13-0-50-0, R. Perera 13.2-3-55-4, S. Jayawardena 25-5-68-4, Y. Bandara 4-1-12-0, N. Dharmaratne 6-1-15-1
