Nalanda took the upper-hand of the 85th Battle of the Maroons at the end of rain curtailed Day 1 at R.Premadasa Stadium today.
Nalanda skipper Woshantha Silva won the toss and elected to field on a seamer friendly surface at Sri Lanka’s best international ground. Right arm fast bowler Malinga Amarasinghe removed the Ananda skipper Thamalaka Athulathmudali in the second over of the match. Kushil Perera and Lakkana Jayasekara added 63 runs for the second wicket before they were sent back to the pavilion by Nalanda spinners.
Lakkana Jayasekara made 36 elegant runs in 59 balls with 6 fours while Kushil Perera consumed 59 balls for his 23 runs.Pasindu Isira could not make a big impression as he was clean bowled by Nalanda’s best bowler for the day Madawa Anuththara.
Sahan Arachchige and Dasun Wijesinghe played two sensible knocks of 40 runs and 21 runs respectively in the middle overs before Nalanda spinners came back into the game removing both the set batsman. Madawa Anuththara’s extra pace was too much to handle for the Ananda tail end as Ananda was bowled out for 170 runs after being 136 for 4 at one stage.
Right arm quick Anuththara Madawa returned with best figures of 4 for 32. Spin duo of Kavinda Bandara and Pramud Hettiwatta shared 4 wickets between them. Right arm leg spinner Kavinda took 2 scalps for 17 runs while vice-captain and left arm orthodox spinner Pramud Hettiwatta captured 2 wickets for 39 runs.
Nalanda could only bat two overs as rain gods took over at R.Premadasa Stadium. Nalanda College will be the happier team going into the second day’s play which will commence tomorrow starting at 9.30am.
Brief Scores:
Ananda College – 170 all out in 55.3 overs : (Lakkana Jayasekara 36, Kushil Perera 23, Sahan Arachchige 40, Dasun Wijesinghe 21; Madawa Anuththara 4/32, Kavinda Bandara 2/17, Pramud Hettiwatta 2/39)
Nalanda College – 1 for no loss in 2 overs.
