An exhilarating contest developed at the 87th Battle of the Maroons between rivals Ananda College and Nalanda College at the Sinhalese Sports Club (SSC) grounds today.
Appearing the favourites, the Anandians won the toss and invited their opponents to take the first lease of the wicket. Confining the opening stand to a mere 14 runs, Thinura Hettiarachchi was sent back to the dressing room on the back of Kavishka Anjula’s pace bowling. Associated in a fruitful partnership with Nimnaka Rathnayake, right-hand batsman Lakshitha Rasanjana chipped in with a useful 35 to build up a solid 64 runs stand for the 2nd wicket before Nimnaka was castled on 44 by Supun Waragoda.
Photo Album – Battle of the Maroons – Day 1
The subsequent bowling change worked beautifully for the Anandians as the experienced Malinga Amarasinghe of Nalanda outfit was trapped at mid-wicket owing to a mistimed lofted shot against Supun Wijewardhana’s off spin. Contribution of the Nalanda middle order was substandard since they lost two consecutive wickets, that of Kasun Sandaruwan and Suhanga Wijewardhana who faced just one ball.
Anchoring the late order, a constructive 30 runs came off from the bat of Dilan Suraweera at a decisive stage of the game to post a satisfactory 197 runs for the 1st innings when they lost 6 wickets for a cheap 36 runs after lunch. Supun Waragoda who was the pick of the bowlers captured the last couple scalps and claimed a four-wicket haul on day one.
In the 3rd session of the day, Ananda College came out bat and went on to heap 55 runs for the loss of one at stumps. The one and only batsman to dismiss was Kalana Perera who was dropped on 1 and unfortunately utilized the second chance to add just three runs more, before he nicked the ball to the safe hands of the slip-cordon.
The second day of the Battle of the Maroons will be continued from 9.30am onwards at SSC grounds. Catch the live action on Sri Lanka’s premier sports hub; www.thepapare.com
 grounds today.){kind=link}