Rollicking batsmen and ruthless spinners set up a 10 wicket win for the S.Thomas’ College 2nd XI against Royal College 2nd XI in their traditional ‘Mini Battle’ at Mount Lavinia.
After being sent into bat by the Royal skipper Gayan Dissanayake, opener Sithara Hapuhinna’s whirlwind 78 off 56 balls set up the perfect winning platform for the hosts to dominate. Shenal Fernando was the first to go for 16 with the score on 37 as Hapuhinna started his carnage.
Merciless Hapuhinna cracked 12 fours and 3 sixes for his 78 as he put on 88 run partnership in 61 balls for the 2nd wicket along with Dulith Gunarathne, who too scored 37 in 27 balls with 3 fours and 3 sixes.
Both were severe to Dissanayake who went for plenty but got his revenge when he picked up Hapuhinna, Gunarathne and Kanishka Perera (1) in consecutive overs to send the Thomians from 125 for 1 to 142 for 4. Dissanayake finished with 3 for 69 in 8 overs.
Though under pressure, Thomian Captain Ishen Perera who joined Pavith Rathnayake moved the scoreboard along to post 195 for 4 in 31 overs at lunch. The two continued on their merry way after lunch putting on a hundred run partnership Rathnayake who had scored 60 in 69 balls with 8 fours and a six perished to the bowling of Shan Thennakoon with the score on 251.
Perera got good support from Dineth Kannangara (21) and Rushith Karunarathne (11) who he put on 34 and 35 run partnerships respectively as he edged towards his hundred. Perera got to his three figure mark in the 60th over in 114 balls which had 15 fours as the Thomians declared on 335 for 7.
In reply, Royal College innings never got off as Shenal Fernando picked up two wickets and Kannangara’s brilliant fielding inflicted two run-outs as Royal were 46 for 4.
Photo Album – Royal Thomian Mini Battle
Then Kannangara came on to dismiss the Royal captain as Rathnayake and Keshawa Wijewardena picked a wicket each as Royal stuttered to 76 for 7. There on the Thomians dropped three catches as it allowed Royal to end day 1 on 108 for 7 with Kavindu Madarasinghe not out on 46.
Madarasinghe and Shan Thennakoon continued to frustrate the hosts with the help from poor fielding as the two put on 67 runs for the 8th wicket before Kannangara came onto bowl Thennakoon (23) and break the partnership.
Madarasinghe fell 19 short of a deserved hundred when Kannangara trapped him lbw. His score of 81 had 12 fours. Royal ultimately were all out for 183 and were forced to follow on.
The second innings too got off to a disastrous start as Kulith Samarakoon (0) and Madara Thalduwa (5) were dismissed cheaply and were 28 for 2.
First innings hero Madarasinghe joined Krishikan Raveendranathan to put on 42 for the 3rd wicket. Isaac Suppaiyah dismissed Krishikan for 38 and bagged his second 14 runs later, that of Uvin Herath.
Thomians’ aggressive batsmen and spinners eyeing ‘The Shield’
Kanishka Perera picked up Madarasinghe and Supun Abeyrathne off consecutive balls but missed out on a hat-trick as Royal were staring down the barrel on 101 for 6. The last four lower order wickets could only muster another 70 runs as Rathnayake and Kannangara ran through the line-up.
Given 20 runs to win the Thomians scored them in 2.3 overs with Hapuhinna scoring 14 of them which had 2 fours and a six.
The Thomians won the Mini Battle after defeats in the last two encounters.
Score Summary
S.Thomas’ College (1st inn) – 335/7 (59.5 overs) (Ishen Perera 100*, Sithara Hapuhinna 78, Pavith Rathnayake 60, Gayan Dissanayake 3/69)
Royal College (1st inn) – 183 all out (57 overs) (Kavindu Madarasinghe 81, Dineth Kannangara 3/53, Shenal Fernando 2/19)
Following-on (2nd inn) – 171 all out (40.3 overs) (Krishikan Raveendranathan 38, kavindu Madarasinghe 32, Pavith Rathnayake 3/33, Isaac Suppaiyah 2/29)
S.Thomas’ College (2nd inn) – 22 for 0 (2.3 overs) (Sithara Hapuhinna 14*, Dulith Gunarathne 8*)
