The 1st XI Cricket Encounter between Royal and St. Peter’s College, the last to be played at Reid Avenue this season, took place on the 3rd and 4th of February. The team was escorted to the grounds amidst much pomp and cheer by the students.

On day one, Royal College managed to grab four quick wickets before lunch limiting the Peterites to a score of 115. However, the visitors managed to fight back in the second innings and put up a total of 250 runs on the scoreboard. The extremely talented Charuka Hatharasinghe managed to dismiss 7 for a mere 39 runs.

Royal College was not off to a good start as both openers, Jayawardena and Withanapathirana were sent off early. Royal ended the day with a score of 133 runs at the expense of eight wickets.

The following day Royal was called to follow on after getting all out at 117 runs. Though at that moment, the conditions were in favour of the Peterites, the young Pasindu Sooriyabandara managed to turn the tables, scoring a massive 125 runs. He along with the contributions of Ronuka Jayawardena and Ganith Sandeepa was able to bring the Royal Score up to 280 following which they declared their innings setting a target of 165 runs for St. Peter’s.

Though the Peterites seemed to be off to a good start in their second innings the Royalist’s bowling squad managed to draw the match in a nail-biting finish, sending of 7 batsmen and limiting the visitors score to 149 runs at the end of the day’s play.

MATCH SUMMARY

St. Peter’s College (1^st innings) 250 in 65.5 overs

Charuka Hatharasinghe 7/39

Himesh Ramanayake 2/30

Ganith Sandeepa 1/55

Royal College (1^st innings) 134 in 33.4 overs

Geeshath Panditharathna 47

Thiran Dhanapala 33

Pasindu Sooriyabandara 30

Royal College (2^nd innings) 280/5 dec. in 66 overs

Pasindu Sooriyabandara 125*

Ronuka Jayawardena 47