Rain forces draw at Uyanwatte
The third Battle of the Golden Lions between Rahula College Matara and Dharmapala College Pannipitiya ended in a draw at the Uyanwatte Stadium yesterday.
With an hour’s play lost due to a damp outfield Rahula captain Harsha Rajapakse invited Dharmapala to take first lease of the wicket. Openers Sachindu Perera (45) and Prashan Rathnayake (49) shared a 98 run opening stand off 137 balls before Pasindu was stumped by Nimesh Hettiarachchi off the bowling of Pasan Samarathunge. Right-arm off-spinner Yasiru Hewanadugala captured six wickets. Dharmapala declared their innings at the fall of the ninth wicket with the score on 226.
Rahula continuing from their overnight score of 19 for 1 wicket, were bowled out for 158 runs. Sahan Hendavitharana topped the score card with 33 runs and Nishan Perera was rewarded with a five wicket haul.
Dharmapala declared their second essay at 83 for 6, scored in 19.3 overs giving Rahula a victory target of 152 runs to be scored in a possible 20 overs but Rahula only managed to score 78 runs for the loss of five wickets at the end of 16 overs when rain interrupted further play.
Dharmapala 226 for 9 wickets declared in 63 overs (Sachindu Perera 45, Prashan Rathnayake 58, Himasha Liyanage 14, Vimukthi Radella 21, Harsha Gallage 42, Kushan Jayalath 16, Yasiru Hewanandugala 6 for 25) and 83 for 6 wickets in 19.3 overs (Prashan Rathnayake 19, Jayampathi Bandara 26, Himasha Liyanage 23, Yasiru Hewanadugala 3 for 37, Harsha Rajapaksha 2 for 29)
Rahula 158 all out in 72.2 overs (Piruna Thilak 38, Thilina Mannage 18, Harsha Rajapaksha 26, Sahan Hendavitharana 33, Nimesh Hettiarachchi 10, Nishan Perera 5 for 37) and 78 for 5 wickets in 16 overs at close (Rukshan Gunawardena 18, Harsha Rajapaksha 12, Nimesh Hettiarachchi 16n.o, Nishan Perera 3 for 23, Asanka Sameera 2 for 35)