Ananda College produced a tremendous batting performance to take first innings honours over Trinity College Kandy in their inter school under 19 cricket tournament match which ended in a high scoring draw at Ananda Mawatha today.
The Anandians who started the proceedings under the backdrop of some uncertainty recovered magnificently to overtake their opponent’s first innings total and to reach an impressive 274 runs in reply.
Ananda College who resumed their first innings at a shaky 76 for 3 wickets rallied around through their middle order batsmen Shammu Ashan, Pasindu Isira and Nisal Francisco to deliver the goods despite batting under tremendous pressure.
In fact all rounder and Sri Lanka Under 17 cap Shammu Ashan played the sheet anchor role while compiling a solid half century while Pasindu Isira and Nisal Francisco provided excellent support from the other end.
The significant feature in the Ananda College batting was the fact that they were able to negotiate the spin of Raveen Sayer the most successful bowler in the Trinity attack with a lot of confidence and authority.
In fact Raveen Sayer turned out to be the most expensive bowler in the Trinity College attack as he conceded as many as 94 runs for his two wickets while Charith Sudaraka snapped up four wickets for 71 runs.
Ananda College of course lost a couple of quick wickets while getting closer towards their opponents first innings total but still they held their nerves and went on to obtain a close seven runs lead at the end.
Trinity College then batted the rest of the day as they went on to get some good batting practices while scoring a formidable 200 runs for the loss of just two wickets.
Even then both their openers Nushan Weerasinghe and Arjuna Jayasinghe missed out the opportunity of scoring a century and were dismissed for 95 and 92 respectively.
However the consistent Arjuna Jayasinghe had the satisfaction of completing twin fifties following his superb knock of 66 runs in the first innings of the match.
Trinity College: 267 (Arjuna Jayasinghe 66, Kaveen Hiniduma 71, Ron Chandraguptha 32, Naveen Ekanayake 28, Isuru Gunasekera 3 for 69, Shammu Ashan 4 for 59) and 200 for 2 (Nushan Weerasinghe 95, Arjuna Jayasinghe 92)
Ananda College: 274 (Lakkhana Jayasekera 30, Shammu Ashan 61, Pasindu Isira 48, Nisal Francisco 41, Dasun Wijesinghe 26, Charith Sudaraka 4 for 71, Lahiru Kumara 2 for 43, Raveen Sayer 2 for 94)
