Colombo – Royal Skipper Dasis Manchanayake reached a personal milestone when he completed 50 runs during the second session of the 144the Battle of the Blues Inter-School Big Match against traditional rivals Royal College at the SSC Grounds in Maitland Place on Thursday.
The elegant left-hand middle order batsman rose to the occasion with a splendid performance as he made a determined effort to rescue his side after they had collapsed 83 for four at lunch.
However, Manchanayake launched a superb counterattack and took the Thomian bowling apart while racing to his half century in 55 deliveries with the help of five boundaries.
Manchanayake, who has over 1,000 runs to his credit this season played an innings of caution and aggression as he slowly but steadily took Royal out of danger along with his partner Ramiru Perera.
Earlier, Royal, who were put into bat struggled to reach 83 for four at lunch in 23 overs as the Thomians took advantage from the overcast conditions.
Akash Fernando struck in the very first over of the innings to remove the Royal opener Rehan Peiris for four runs while Nathan Caldera dismissed Sineth Jayawardena in the fourth over to make it 12 for 2.
Royal never looked like recovering as they lost the third wicket at 19 as Uvindu Weerasekera fell for a splendid delivery from Kavindu Dias in the ninth over of the innings.
