The Battle of Hinduites, is an annual cricket match played between Colombo Hindu College and Jaffna Hindu College. It is being held for the 9th consecutive year at the Jaffna Hindu College grounds.
Last year the match ended in a draw, despite the heroics of S. Gajendran who took 8 wickets in an innings for Colombo Hindu College. Both teams go into this year’s big match with high expectations.
Colombo Hindu College skipper Sharon won the toss and elected to bat first, on a dry Jaffna surface. Lads from Colombo started their innings with Praveenkumar and Keneeshan. Jaffna Hindu College left arm pacer Chandru got a break through early in the day, as he took Praveenkumar and Keneeshan’s wickets for 8 & 17 respectively.
Though the openers fell in quick intervals, 6th year coloursman & the former captain, Dinesh played a responsible knock to take the Colombo boys forward along with the 3rd year coloursman Shewag. They put up 65 runs for the 3rd wicket before Shewag fell after scoring 24 runs. Dinesh batted beautifully for his third consecutive fifty in Jaffna before being caught at covers off the bowling of Sivaluxan. The tail-enders couldn’t capitalise on the start as they kept loosing their wickets at regular intervals. Colombo Hindu College was all out for 165 runs in 45.4 overs. Dinesh smashed 65 runs from 66 balls, with 6 fours and 3 massive sixes. Sivaluxan was the architect with the ball for Jaffna Hindu College, as he took 5 wickets for just 49 runs. He was well supported by Gopiram, who took 3 wickets.
Jaffna Hindu College openers got their 1st innings off to a flying start. Opening batsman G. Santhosh got out for 32 runs and his partner U. Milushan got a useful half century before losing his wicket to off spinner Keneeshan. The batsmen who followed also batted steadily and made sure to keep their lead.
At the end of the day Jaffna Hindu College scored 212 runs for the loss of 4 wickets. Opening batsman Milushan top scored with 71 runs off 120 balls including 10 boundaries and 2 sixes. Keneeshan took 2 wickets for Colombo Hindu College.
The final day’s play will resume today (10th) as the pair at the crease, Virushan(50 not out) and Galant ( 33 not out) will be looking to accelerate their progress.
BRIEF SCORES (1ST DAY)
Colombo Hindu College(1st inn)-165 (45.4) Dinesh 66 ,Shewag 24 , Sivaluxan 49/5 , Gopiram 17/3 , Chandru 38/2
Jaffna Hindu College (1st inn)-212/4(42) U. Milushan 71 , Y.Virushan 50*
