Skipper Dhanuja Induwara hit a superb knock of 101 in 129 balls while opener Dinura Kalupahana scored an explosive knock of 75 in 69 balls as Mahinda College made a challenging total of 316 for 8 wickets declared in the first innings and Richmond College were 74 for 3 wickets at close of the first day’s play at the 118th Battle of the Lovers’ Quarrel cricket encounter played at Galle International cricket Stadium yesterday.
It was a good toss to lose for Mahindians and they batted very positively from the beginning and at lunch they were 165 for 2 wickets with Sri Lanka under 19 player Dinura Kalupahana leading the way to hit 11 fours and a six while skipper Dhanuja Induwara played the anchor role to get his century which came after 25 years with the last Mahindian to score a big match 100 was way back in 1998. when Thusara Rupasinghe hit a century in the big match. In fact Mahinda passed the 300 run mark and that also after 51 years in a big match that Mahinda team passed the 300 run mark. The skipper Dhanuja Induwara said that their task was to play positively and collect enough runs to put pressure and their coach Tharanga Maharamba was happy to see their team’s performance of the first day.
I told my boys to attack against Malsha Tharupathi which worked out really well with first day honours taken by Mahinda and hope to put more pressure today said former Mahinda cricketer who is coaching his school for the first big match.
Richmond skipper Tharinda Nirmal was the pick of the bowlers taking 3 for 78 while Sri Lanka under 19 spinner Malsha Tharupathi the key bowler of the side took 2 for 78 in his 19 overs spell.
Richmond openers Chehan Subasinghe and Bhanuka Manohara the last year skipper were unable to give a good start with Manohara being out for a duck off the bowling of Shehan Hasaranga while Subasinghe made a fighting knock of 50 in 86 balls with six fours finally out off the bowling of spinner Kaveen Rukshan who finished the day with 2 for 10 in two overs. Skipper Tharinda Nirmal (6 in 3 balls) and Thamindu Pradeeptha (9 in 32 balls) were at the wickets when the bad light stopped play and these two batters have a big responsibility to score runs in today’s first session.
Chief scores
Mahinda: 316/8 declared 73.5 overs (Vinura Kalupahana 75, Pramesh Madubhashana 38, Dhanuja Induwara 101, Ranmina Hettiarachchi 16, Hiruna Mandila 30, Chandupa de Silva 20*, Shehan Hasaranga 18, Malsha Tharupathi 2/78, Tharinda Nirmal 3/78, Yuri Kotthigoda 1/46, Sharon Abhishek 1/33)
Richmond: 74/3 at close in 20.3 overs (Chehan Subasinghe 50, Shehan Hasaranga 1/18, Kaveen Rukshan 2/10)
by Daily News Sri Lanka
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