Sri Lanka: Unenterprising, drab cricket at Mount (4 October 1998)

4 October 1998

Sri Lanka: Unenterprising, drab cricket at Mount

By Richard Dwight

Both S. Thomas' and Richmond commenced their cricket season on a negative, unenterprising note, when they made sure that their encounter at Mt. Lavinia yesterday ended in a drab draw.

S. Thomas', having been sent in to bat first on Friday did not appear to be keen on making a good score quickly and open out the game.

Instead the Thomians laboured over their 246 for 8 made of 69 overs and 309 minutes occupying the crease for a good part of the day to declare at 4.30 p.m. Neither the Thomian batsmen nor the Richmond bowlers did anything spectacular to arouse interest and keep the game alive. Richmond in reply batting towards the latter part of the evening, having two brief interruptions, one for a slight drizzle and the other for bad light, were 8 for no loss.

Continuing yesterday, Richmond batted with little or no purpose, with their batsmen playing hesitantly to the extent of just staying on. At tea time Richmond after 292 minutes batting and 71 overs were only 122 for 4. Eventually Richmond batted right through to the end and were all out for 210.

S. Thomas's: 246 for 8 (S. Peiris 46, G. Fernando 35, U. Fernando 34, S. Caldera 31, S. Kanake 24 not out, O. Wijesiriwardene 2 for 50, T. Wickremasuriya 2 for 36, O. Sumathipala 2 for 32).

Richmond: 210 (O. Wijesiriwardene 36 n.o., D. Bahar 33, T. Wickremasuriya 25, O. Sumathipala 34, C. Perera 24, M. Chaturanga 16, L. Fernando 2 for 35, U. Fernando 2 for 0, H. Jayawardene 2 for 20.

Source :: Daily News (https://www.lanka.net)