Antonians in strong position

By Shamzeer Jaleel reporting from Katugastota

Winning the toss on a flat batting wicket the home team, the Antonians, piled up a huge 298 for eight in their 102nd Battle of the Blues encounter against Trinity College which commenced at Katugastota today (8).

Opener Chamidu Wickremasinghe (128) and Asitha Wanniarachchi (54) batted with lot of authority and confidence. Chamidu stroked a brilliant century which included four boundaries and one six in his knock, while Wanniarachchi’s knock was more a brisk one which consisted with 11 delightful boundaries. Both put on 88 for the first wicket with useful contribution coming in later on from skipper, Theeksha Gunasinghe (25), Lasith Weralagama (21) and Thamashana Abeykoon (21).

Antonian skipper, Theeksha Gunasinghe went past 1,000 runs this season during his knock. There was hardly any help for either the fast bowlers or the spinners on the flat wicket in the first session at Katugastota but the Trinity bowlers Kavishka Senadheera and Abishek Anandakumar both bowling with good line and length were rewards with six wickets between them.

Kavishka Senadheera fought back with his spin bowling in the afternoon by taking four wickets for the Trinitians while Abishek supported him with two from his account.

Trinity taking lease of the wicket were soon in trouble losing Shane Gunatilake cheaply. Abishek and Chanuka batted through some anxious moments before stumps were drawn at Katugastota yesterday.

Trinity will need to build up a good partnership if the Antonians especially Nimnaka Jayathilake gets on top of the Trinity batsmen, it will be trouble time for the Lions.

St. Anthony’s College

1st innings

Chamidu Wickremasinghe c and b K. Senadheera 128

Asitha Wanninayake lbw K. Senadheera 54

Gihan Ebert c Peiris b Abishek 04

Theeksha Gunasinghe c Chanuka b Wimaladharma 25

Lasith Weralagama lbw b K. Senadheera 21

Thamashana Abeykoon c and b K. Senadheera 21

Kalhara Senaratne c Weerasinghe b Abishek 11

Gihan Achintha run out 08

Mohamed Kamil not out 07

Sasith Hirudika not out 05

• Extras (b4, lb6, nb4) 14
• Total (8 wkts declared, 76 overs) 298
• Fall of wickets: 1-88, 2-105, 3-166, 4-242, 5-243, 6-266, 7-283, 8-296
• Bowling: Ruvin Peiris 11-0-68-0, Avishka Senadheera 4.3-0-25-0, Pubudu Bandara 0.3-0-1-0, Kavishka Senadheera 26-1-98-4, Abishek Anandakumar 25-4-77-2, Shane Gunatilake 2-0-5-0, Ovindu Wimaladharma 7-0-14-1

Trinity College

1st innings

Shane Gunatilake c Achintha b Wickremasinghe 02

Abishek Anandakumar not out 04

Chanuka Kumarasinghe not out 13

• Extras (1w) 01
• Total (1 wkt, 9 overs) 20
• Fall of wickets: 1-4
• Bowling: S. Hirudika 2-1-02-0, C. Wickremasinghe 2-1-1-1, K. Senaratne 1-0-10-0, N. Jayathilake 2-1-2-0, G. Ebert 2-0-4-0 

Pix by Samantha Perera