Sri Devananda College Ambalangoda were in a commanding position on the opening day of their inter school under 19 cricket encounter against Kingswood College Kandy which commenced at the Police ground today.
Sri Devananda College electing to bat first after winning the toss produced an excellent batting performance to pile up a formidable 296 for 8 wickets in their first innings and then had the home side struggling at 96 for 6 wickets in reply.
The Devananda College innings was built around a superb century from their middle order batsman Chatura Milan who produced his best effort for the current season in scoring a chanceless knock of 107.
The elegant right hander of course walked into the middle at a vital stage of the innings when his team had lost a couple of early wickets under seaming conditions against the Kingswood College opening bowlers.
In fact paceman Prabath Jayawickrema was the most impressive among the Kingswood College bowlers as he captured three important wickets and also troubled most of the Devananda College batsmen with his pace and swing.
However Chatura Milan dropped anchor at one end and started rebuilding the innings through some solid batting which really frustrated the Kingswood College bowlers who had to toil hard with limited success.
Chatura Milan went on to complete a well deserved hundred shortly after the tea interval as Devananda College fell short by just three runs from crossing the three hundred run mark for the first time in the current season.
Milan was also associated in a century partnership along with Lahiru Presenka (61) who provided the back up support while stroking a fluent half century while Sakun Kanchana (47) Imesh Udayanga (24) and Sakun Anjana (21 n. o) chipped in with useful contributions.
Kingswood College in their turn were under tremendous pressure from the very first delivery and they slumped to 96 for 5 wickets still trailing by 200 runs on the first innings.
Sri Devananda College: 296-8 decl (Sakun Kanchana 47, Imesh Udayanga 24, Lahiru Presenka 61, Chatura Milan 107, Chilan Anjana 21 n. o, Prabath Jayawickrema 3/24)
Kingswood: 96-5 in (Dinu Poornima 46 n. o, Dilshan Walisunadara 26, Thilan Anjana 3/10)
