The first day of the 116th Royal-Joes cricket encounter concluded today with the hosts’ ending with a slight advantage at Darley road.
The Royalists batting in their first innings managed to put up 171 runs in 55 over’s with Off spinning all rounder Poorna Aluthge scoring a half century. It was a conservative innings by the Royal middle order batsman who batted through to give his team a solid first innings score with Sampath de Silva scoring a valuable 27 runs at the top of the order.
Off spinner Moditha Weerasinghe who has been in prime form for the Darley road team after a 8 wicket match bag in his previous outing against the Antonians managed to bag three wickets for 62 runs while Aravinda Akuregoda, Sachin Hewawasam and Priyamal Perera chipped with two wickets each.
Joes going in to bat in their first innings ended day one on 142 runs for the loss of 6 wickets with Pathum Madushanka remaining unbeaten on 43*, while opener Sadheera Samarawickrama and Sachin Hewawasam contributed with scores of 21 and 25 runs respectively.
In the bowling department the Royalists managed to collect wickets through Harith Samarasinghe and Poorna Aluthge who ended with a couple of wickets each.
During the Royal-Joes encounter , the Josephians lead the win tally with 28 wins while Royal have so far registered 21 wins in the 116 match series.
Scores in Brief
Royal College 1st innings 171 runs all out in 55 over’s (Poorna Aluthge 50, Sampath de Silva 27, Moditha Weerasinghe 3/62, Aravinda Akurugoda 2/13, Sachin Hewawasam 2/16, Priyamal Perera 2/29)
St. Josephs College 1st innings 142/6 at the close of play in 32 over’s (Sadeera Samarawickrama 21, Sachin Hewawasam 25, Pathum Madusankha 43*, Fabian Fernando 18*)
