Richmond College put themselves in a commanding position after they completely dominated the opening day of their inter school under 19 cricket tournament match against Dharmasoka College Ambalangoda which began at the Galle International Stadium today.
Richmond College put up a tremendous performance on the field to skittle out their opponents for just 158 runs having elected to field first and then powered their way to reach an impressive 154 runs for three wickets in reply.
The Richmond College bowling attack spearheaded by Waruna Deshappriya looked very much in control of the situation from the moment they put the opposition in and were able to pick up wickets at regular intervals.
In fact Deshappriya came into the limelight for the first time in the current season while returning excellent figures of four wickets for 51 runs while the ever consistent Saveen Nanayakkara also left a mark by capturing two important wickets.
Dharmasoka College of course recovered somewhat during the latter stages through their middle order batsman Sachin Diwangana who struck exactly fifty runs while batting under tremendous pressure to ensure that his team would reach at least the one hundred and fifty run mark at the end.
However the biggest setback for Dharmasoka College was the fact that they were unable to build up any significant partnership to continue with the momentum and as a result only Sachin Diwangana and Pasan Piyaranga were able to make an impact with the bat.
Despite defending a modest total Dharmasoka College made the perfect start on the field as they had the strong Richmond College batting struggling at 22 for three wickets following some inspired bowling from Thilan Maduranga.
The medium paceman produced a splendid hostile spell of bowling and snapped up two early wickets during his opening spell to put his team back on track as the Sokians looked like making amends for their disappointing batting performance.
However Richmond College proved that they have enough depth in their batting line up as the fourth wicket pair of Charith Asalanka and Kamindu Mendis started repairing the early damage through some intelligent batting.
In fact Asalanka finished the day just three runs short of a magnificent century and together with Kamindu Mendis they have so far put on 132 runs for the unfinished fourth wicket.
Dharmasoka College: 158 (Sachin Diwangana 50, Pasan Piyaranga 23, Waruna Deshappriya 4 for 51, Saveen Nanayakkara 2 for 32)
Richmond College: 154 for 3 (Charith Asalanka 97 n. o, Kamindu Mendis 40 n. o, Thilan Maduranga 2 for 53)
