Isipathana College put up a stubborn batting performance in their second innings to force a draw to their inter school under 19 cricket tournament match against Trinity College Kandy which concluded at the Colts CC ground in Havelock Park today.
Isipathana College after being asked to follow on came out with an improved batting effort as they went on to frustrate the opposition for more than two sessions in scoring a modest 193 runs and to save the game.
This was a splendid effort from Isipathana College considering the fact that they were under tremendous pressure to avert an innings defeat having been bowled out for 218 runs in the first innings.
However they were able to negotiate the formidable Trinity College spin attack quite successfully with opening batsman Salinda Ushan missing out a well deserved hundred as he was stranded unbeaten on 95 runs.
Even then his knock was certainly worth more than a century considering the fact that he was the only batsman in the team who offered some kind of resistance against a quality bowling attack.
In fact it looked as if Trinity College would wrap up another outright victory for the current season with their key bowler Raveen Sayer producing a magnificent spell to finish with a matchbag of thirteen wickets.
Earlier Trinity College who were put into bat took full use of a superb batting track as they went on a scoring spree to amass a formidable 322 for 5 wickets in their first innings.
Opener Kaveen Hiniduma led the way while compiling a superb 121 and together with Ron Chandraguptha (80 n. o) the pair really capitalized on some pretty ordinary bowling to pile up their highest total for the current season.
Isipathana College were soon in trouble against the spin of Raveen Sayer (7 for 79) but they eventually managed to reach a respectable 218 runs thanks to some determined batting from Salinda Ushan (43), Sachin Jayasuriya (59) and Torry Thabrew (35).
Trinity College: 322 for 5 declared (Kaveen Hiniduma 121, Ron Chandraguptha 80 n. o, Chatura Jayasundera 59, Charith Sudaraka 25)
Isipathana College: 218 (Salinda Ushan 43, Sachin Jayasuriya 59, Torry Thabrew 35, Raveen Sayer 7 for 79, Charith Sudaraka 2 for 56) and 193 (Salinda Ushan 95 n. o, Dushan Nirmala 24, Raveen Sayer 6 for 93)
