16th Battle of the North Jaffna Central in line to record convincing win

Jaffna Central College continued their domination for the second successive day against traditional rivals St. John’s College in the 116th Battle of the North big match and have put themselves in line to record a convincing win when play ended on the second day at the Central ground in Jaffna.  

St. John’s made to follow on and left with the daunting task of erasing a deficit of 152 runs were in dire straits as they succumbed to right arm spinner Vikneswaran Paruthi and pacie Ranjithkumar Newton who tormented them in the first innings and were struggling on 137 for 7 needing a further 15 runs to avoid an innings defeat when play gets underway on the final day.  

The morning sessions proceedings on day two saw the left and right pacies Ranjithkumar Newton and Ananthan Kajan turning the tide in favor of the Centralites as the duo ran through the Johnians batting sharing seven wickets between them to have them struggling.   The Johnians were struggling for survival after resuming from their overnight score of 43 for 3 and found the pacie double too hot to handle. They lost wickets at regular intervals as Newton and Kajan combined with effect and the Johnians from a position of 109 for 5 lost their last five wickets for the addition of just 18 runs and was bowled out for a low score of 127 runs. This was in reply to the Centralites score of 279 runs.  

The match will be continued today.  -MSA

Result:

Jaffna Central 279 (Nishanthan Ajay 74, Jegatheeswaran Vithusan 71, Matheeswaran Sansayan 42, Sutharshan Anushanth 27, Thakuthas Abilash 15: Yogathas Vithushan 4 for 70, Anton Abishel 3 for 67, Kirupananthan Kajakarnan 2 for 38)  

St. John’s Jaffna (43/3 overnight) 127 (Nesakumar Jezial 43, Kamalapalan Sabesan 34: Ranjithkumar Newton 4 for 27, Ananthan Kajan 3 for 8, Sudarshan Anushanth 2 for 62) and 137 for 7 (Kamalapalan Janaththan 26, Nesakumar Jezial 25, Arulseelan Kavishan 22 n.o.: Vikneswaran Paruthi 4 for 50, Ranjithkumar Newton 3 for 41)