63rd Battle of the Brothers: Thanuga guides Thurstan to innings win

The victorious Thurstan College outfit 

By M. Shamil Amit 

Last year’s skipper and left-arm spinner Thanuga Palihawadana, with a five-wicket haul who ended with a match bag of eight wickets, helped Thurstan record a convincing innings-and-eight-run win over traditional rivals Isipathna, in the 63rd Battle of the Brothers big match, concluded at the SSC ground yesterday.
Thurstan, in fact, had put themselves in a strong position when play ended on day two, as they had Isipathana struggling for survival, having ended on 22 for 2, and they were left with the task of erasing a deficit of 95 runs.
But unfortunately, Isipathana was unable to make any headway on the final day’s play as they lost three quick wickets for the addition of 43 runs and were reeling on 65 for 5.
From there on, they never recovered as they succumbed to Thanuga, who grabbed four of the remaining five wickets, and Isipathana, only able to add 44 runs, were bowled out for 109 runs.
This was Thurstan’s second consecutive Big Match victory, with Thanuga celebrating his second win after also captaining the side to a win last year.
The win saw Thurstan chalking up their eighth win of the series to Isipathana’s four.

Result
At SSC - Thurstan won by an innings and eight runs 
Isipathana 159 (Navindu Umeth 43, Tharun Perera 43, Maleesha Sandaruwan 26, Kavindu Dewshan 16, Menula Dambakumbura 15; Sethru Fernando 3/32, Thanuga Palihawadana 3/51, Sanvidu Dissanayake 2/6, Nithish Kamalasooriya 2/11) and (22/2 overnight) 109 (Kavindu Dewshan 21, Maleesha Sandaruwan 20, Dasith Senal 17; Thanuga Palihawadana 5/44, Sethru Fernando 4/36)
Thurstan 276 (Rachintha de Silva 71, Hirushan Dias 44, Janitha Rukshan 40, Sethru Fernando 36, Thanuga Palihawadana 28; Yesindu Maneesha 3/51, Dasith Senal 3/54)