It was a fantastic game gents. Well done Hartley team. Jaffna Hindu College (JHC) bowled very well to keep the half time score to 4/59. Then we had a great 50 run partnership between Johnson and Nishanthan and another 50 run partnership in just 5 overs between Johnson and our captain Siva. Johnson scored 68 with 8 fours and a six while Siva scored 27 with 4 fours. We were 5/92 at the 30 over mark. Last 10 overs we scored 83 runs to make it 8/175. Excellent batting by Johnson, and Siva.   Also, Kannan Keeran Kris Ravi and Nishanthan scored notably.

When it was our turn to bowl, Ravi, Siva, Raga and Nishanthan bowled without much luck with couple of difficult chances and beating the bat many times.  JHC was cruising, however our bowlers kept asking questions. Raga clean bowled their openers and at the break they were 3/84, considerably better than our corresponding score.  Thank you Raga for your commitment playing with a heavy flu.  At the 30 over mark, they were 4/141 – need not to say – JHC would have thought that they had won the game already.

However, Hartley bowlers and fielders had other ideas with the mind set of never giving up.  Rajaram took 3 splendid catches including a caught and bowled.  Rajaram kept the pressure from one end bowling superbly while Ravi and Siva bowled very well in their second spells.  Also, there were 3 run outs – 2 in last 3 overs. Thava fielded very well saving many runs covering an important area.  JHC’s last 10 over was restricted to 7/29 by Hartley.  Excellent work all around boys  considering we had at least 3 fielders with knee injuries limping in the field. Johnson was awarded the well deserving Man of the Match and Rajaram received the best fielder award.  Best batsman and best bowler awards went to Vijithan and Packi of JHC respectively.

Well done again boys!  Congratulations!  Good job Siva leading the team in Gopi’s absence.  Now, all of you keep fit and be ready for the upcoming challenges with other schools’ OBAs.