Thurstan gains upper-hand against Isipathana

Thurstan College dominated the second day of the 63rd Battle of the Brothers Inter-School Big Match against traditional rivals Isipathana College, which continued at the SSC Grounds in Maitland Place yesterday.

Isipathana, trailing by 117 runs on the first innings, finished the day struggling at 22 for two wickets in the second innings, needing a further 95 runs to make Thurstan bat again on the third and final day.

Earlier, Thurstan went on to pile up a formidable 276 runs and had the satisfaction of claiming a first innings lead of 117 runs after having resumed their first innings at 39 for three wickets.

Even then, it was another gruelling day where the batsmen struggled for runs as Thurstan plodded almost the entire second day against some disciplined bowling.

Hirushan Dias and Sethru Fernando began the day’s proceedings rather quietly and their prime intention was to survive the initial period and to repair the early damage, where they lost three wickets cheaply.

Both players batted with a lot of purpose and added 62 runs for the fourth wicket, which laid the platform for their impressive first innings total.

Hirushan, of course, missed a half century but he really frustrated the Isipathana bowlers while facing 126 deliveries for his knock of 44, stroking five boundaries.

The rest of the Thurstan batsmen followed in the same order as they overtook Isipathana’s modest total of 159 with Rachintha de Silva completing the only half century of the innings (71) with the help of one six and seven boundaries.

Rachintha, batting at number seven, surprised his teammates with a solid batting performance as he added 73 valuable runs for the seventh wicket with Janitha Rukshan.

Chief scores

Isipathana: 159 and 22/2

Thurstan: 276 (Hirushan Dias 44, Sethru Fernando 36, Janitha Rukshan 40, Rachintha de Silva 71, Thanuga Palihawadana 28, Yeshindu Maneesha 3/51, Dasith Senal 3/54).

Source - Sunday Observer