Royal declare at 276 for 9 after Thomians bounce back [March 10 2011]

Dinesh Weerawansa for the Observer Online from SSC grounds

Royal, helped by a superb knock of 83 by skipper Ramith Rambukwella, declared their first innings at 276 for 9 a short while ago on the opening day of their 132nd Battle of the Blues three-day cricket encounter against S.Thomas’ begun at SSC grounds, Mailtland Place in Colombo today.

The Thomians came back into the picture 30 minutes after lunch as Royal slumped from a commanding 147 for one to 247 for 5, losing five top wickets with the addition of only 100 runs. Thus, Royal threw away the early advantage they enjoyed with all the hard work though a solid opening stand.

At lunch, Royal were strongly placed at 109 for one wicket. Earlier in the morning, Thomian captain Chamod Pathirana surprise all when he invited Royal to take the first lease of a perfect batting strip after winning an important toss.

Pathirana’s decision was instantly proved wrong as Royal openers Ramith Rambukwella and Waruna Dissanayake added 91 runs for the first wickets in 25.3 overs without facing any serious trouble from the Thomian bowlers.

In fact, the only Royal wicket to fall in the pre-lunch session was a ‘gifted’ one as Dissanayake played a half-hearted shot to a full toss from Ravichandrakumar. But the Thomians struck shortly after lunch to capture two wickets within the space of 17 balls, including that prized wicket of Royal captain Rambukwella who narrowly missed a successive big match century.

Opener Rambukwella, who had the honour of playing for Sri Lanka Under-19 recently with distinction, fell 17 runs short of what would have been his second successive ‘ton’ in the Battle of the Blues series, having struck a blistering knock of 165 for Reid Avenue boys in last year’s encounter.

Rambukwella missed the golden chance of becoming only the second Royalist to score back to back big match centuries after Neil Joseph (113 in 1925 and 133 in 1926) when he was caught behind. He miss timed a ball pitched outside the off stump by his vis-à-vis Chamod Pathirana and Sachin Peiris, behind the stumps, obliged with an easy catch.

Had the Royal captain played his usual attacking game like previous year after lunch, he would have well completed his century.

Await! Close of play update to follow.

SCOREBOARD:

ROYAL COLLEGE - 1ST INNINGS

WARUNA DISSANAYAKE lbw b.R’kumar 42

RAMITH RAMBUKWELLA c. Sachin Peiris b. Pathirana 83

SUPUN SUBASINGHE c. Bongso b. Pathirana 19

BHANUKA RAJAPAKSE c. Bongso b. Pathirana 55

IMAL LIYANAGE c. K.Perera b. R’kumar 27

HESHAN KUMARASIRI C. Sachin Peiris b. Pathirana 02

MILAN ABEYSEKERA c. Sachin Perera b. Pathirana 16

DEVIND PATHMANATHAN b. R’kumar 07

GAURAJ DEVA not out 06

IMRAN KHAN lbw b. R’kumar 00

EXTRAS: (9b, 2 l, 2 w, 6 nb) 19

TOTAL: for 9 wkts decl. 276

BATTING TIME: 319 mts, 66.2 overs

DID NOT BAT: ANJANA KUDAHETTI

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-91 (Dissanayake), 2-147 (Subasinghe), 3-164 (Rambukwella), 4-205 (Liyanage), 5-217 (Kumarasiri), 6-247 (Rajapaksa). 7-259 (Pathmanatha), 8-276 (Abeysekera), 9-276 (Khan).

BOWLING:

PATHIRANA 28-4-101-5; DE SILVA 8-1-28-0; U.FERNANDO 16-1-69-0; RAVICHANDRAKUMAR 12.2-0-50-4; WICKREMASEKERA 1-0-6-0; NUWAN KAVINDA 1-0-11-0.