The exchanges were even at the end of the opening day of the inter school under 19 cricket encounter between Royal College and Ananda College which commenced at the Bloomfield ground in Reid Avenue today.
The Anandians after they were restricted to 162 runs in the first innings hit back strongly and had Royal College struggling at 73 for 3 wickets in reply at the end of the day following some accurate bowling from their spinners.
Even then the day certainly belong to Royal College as they put up a splendid performance on the field to bundle out the formidable Ananda College batting line up for just 162 runs on a batting friendly surface.
The hero for Royal College was once again their all rounder Randev Pathirana who seems to be enjoying the current season having already left a lasting impression with both bat and ball.
This time he grabbed the opportunity to produce a penetrative spell of bowling that left the Anandians in all kinds of trouble and later came into their rescue with the bat to carry his side towards a strong position.
In fact Ananda College really struggled to put a decent score on the board from the very beginning and they would have been in a worse situation of not for some valuable contributions from Ramalka Athulathmudali (30) and Sandaken Pathirana (27).
The Royal College batting of course failed to capitalize on their excellent performance on the field as they suffered a couple of early setbacks and eventually limped to reach a shaky 73 runs for three wickets at the close.
Ananda: College: 162 (Ramalka Athulathmudali 30, Sandaken Pathirana 27, Randev Pathirana 4 for 26, Harin Samarasinghe 3 for 14, Devind Pathmanathan 2 for 30)
Royal College: 73 for 3 (Randev Pathirana 22 n. o)
