Kanishka Amarasinghe saves Isipathana

By Ranjan Anandappa

CRICKET: Dusky Kanishka Amarasinghe saved Isipathana's blushes with a workman like 84 as the 44th Annual cricket encounter between Isipathana and Thurstan petered into to a draw at the SSC grounds yesterday.

Amarasinghe'a determined innings helped Isipathana to avert the follow on when they were 23 for 2 at one stage replying to Thurstan's first innings score of 272 for 8 declared. He utilised 143 deliveries and had struck 13 fours and a six when he was finally out caught by Wickremaratne off Geeth Kumara.

Besides Amarasinghe's efforts M. Ayomal (56) and Lalin Fernando (35) added 82 runs for the third wicket and thereafter Amarasinghe along with Sachit Jayassinghe added a further 52 runs for the seventh wicket.

On a wicket that there was no purchase to the bowlers, batsmen of either side Charith Wickremaratne (Thurstan) ,M.Ayomal and Amarasinghe placed their names in their Big Match series with half centuries.

Credit should go to Thurstan's Umesh Karunaratne who bowled tirelessly to take 4 for 53 and Isipathana's captain Visuddhi Kaluwitharana who took 3 for 14 to reduce Thurstan to 3 for 70 when bad light intervened with 7.1 mandatory overs remaining.o25slg23.wa

THURSTAN 1ST INNINGS 272 for 8 declared (Charith Wickremaratne 67, Geet Kumara 43) ISIPATHANA - 1ST INNINGS (44 for 2 overnight) V. Kaluvitharana b Karunaratne 01 C.De Silva C. Wijeratne b Wickremaratne 0 M. Ayomal C Jeramiah b Karunaratne 56 L. Fernando C. Wijeratne b Samarawickrema 35 Kanishka Amarasinghe c Wickremaratne b Geet Kumara 84 D. Fernando b Wickremaratne 2 S. Ratnayake lbw b Geet Kumara 2 S. Jayasinghe C. Kumara b Karunaratne 14 Nalaka Eranda lbw b Karunaratne 0 W. Perera lbw b Kumara 1 V. Deshapriya not out 0 EXTRAS: 24 TOTAL (in 114.1 over) 219 FALL OF WICKETS: 8, 23, 105, 129, 154, 157, 209, 209, 218 BOWLING: S. Rangajeeva 9-1-43-0, C. Wickremaratne 15-5-30-2, R. Ukwatte 7-4-18-0, U. Karunaratne 34-9-53-4, R. Wijeratne 19-8-32-0, B. Samarawickrema 8-1-15-1, G. Kumara 20.1-7-19-3, C. Perera 2-2-0-0.

THURSTAN - 2ND INNINGS H. Perera c C. De Silva b Kaluwitharana 31 C. Wickremaratne c D. Fernando b Kaluwitharana 25 G. Kumara b Kaluwitharana 0 B. Samarawickrema not out 2 U. Karunaratne not out 10 EXTRAS: 2 TOTAL (in 18.5 overs for 3 wickets) 70 FALL OF WICKETS: 57, 57, 59 BOWLING: W. Perera 2-0-11-0, K. Amarasinghe 2-0-9-0, L. Fernando 2-1-10-0, S. Ratnayake 2-1-7-0, V. Kaluwitharana 5.5-0-14-3, S. Jayasinghe 5-1-18-0.