As rain stopped play at dusk, on the 18th of November 2014 the spectators around the Royal College main grounds witnessed the conclusion of yet another thrilling encounter of the 1st XI Cricket season! Even though the match between Royal College and Isipathana College ended up in a draw, the encounter proved to be an exciting one to all spectators out there.

It was a cloudy Monday morning, the 17th of November 2014 when the skipper of Isipathana College won the toss and chose to take first use of the wicket. The Royal bowlers stood up to the task and terrified the Isipathana batsmen from the start. It was a slow start from Isipathana followed by a collapse in their middle order. From there on with the crumbling of wickets Isipathana was restricted to 108 all out in their first innings. For Royal, it was the skipper Harith Samarasinghe who led from the front with a five wicket haul. He was well supported by spinner Lasith Ambuldeniya and pacer Chamika Karunarathne who bagged 3 wickets and 2 wickets respectively.

After restricting Isipathana to a relatively low score, Royal had to make sure to get off to a good start in order to set the tone to a good first innings score. And as planned, the Royal batsmen got off to a reasonably good start with the Royalists getting the better of the Isipathana bowlers in the first phase of the innings. It was 39 for the loss of two wickets in favour of Royal at the close of play on the first day.

Day two, the sky seemed all gloomy and was followed by slight drizzles that disturbed play. However, as play continued Royal College got off to an aggressive attack and subsequently started losing wickets on a wet pitch unfavourable for batsmen and were restricted to a total of 127. Randev Pathirana top scored with a quick 47 that made work easy for the other batsmen. The Vice Captain Geeshath Panditharathna contributed to the score with a steady 20. Former captain Chamika karunarathna chipped in with a quick 18.

Trailing by 19 runs, along with the bad weather, the Isipathana batsmen required a sound mind and a steady build up to face the attack from the Royal bowlers. Moving into the final overs of the match, Isipathana had their intentions clear as they made sure to keep the scoreboard ticking whilst minimizing the loss of wickets. However, the Royal bowlers kept their spirits up and kept attacking the Isipathana batsmen with good spells. Once again, the Royal bowling attack was well lead by the skipper Harith Samarsinghe who bagged 2 wickets adding to his five wicket haul in the first inning. Lasith Ambuldeniya snatched 2 wickets which further restricted the Isipathana batsmen.

As the bad light made way for the close of play, Isipathana College ended their innings at 120 for the loss of 6 wickets. Despite the game ending a draw, the skills displayed by both teams were a thrill to watch paving the way to a prospective season in the bowling department of Royal College.