Royals routed St. Sebastian’s in style by an innings and 169 runs in their Under 19 inter-school cricket encounter concluded at Reid Avenue yesterday. Royal had to wait 29 years to achieve this win. The last win over the Sebastianites was in 1979 when the side was skippered by Ranjan Madugalle.
Royal’s win was initiated by Kithruwan Withanage who made an entertaining 142 in 146 balls with 22 boundaries and two sixes and former skipper Haroon Mowjood who contributed 60. They were also helped by Anjula Rajapakse and Withanage who were associated in a partnership of 92 runs for the fourth wicket.

St. Benedict’s left arm spinner Dilanka Auwardt who had a match bag of eight wickets in action yesterday. (Pic by Ranjith Perera)

Withanage was once again involved in another 128 runs stand for the fifth wicket with Mowjood. This helped the home team to make a formidable 304 for 8 before declaring. From there onwards Royal’s right arm pacies Bhanuka Rajapakse and Lakshitha de Silva took over as they had the Sebastianite batting groping in the dark by taking four wickets each to skittle them out for an embarrassing 25 in their first inning!

Bhanuka’s figures was something special as he bowled only 1.1 overs and there too he did not give even a single run away. Besides that he also had the honour of taking a hat-trick. The score of 25 was the lowest at Reid Avenue with the previous being 31 when the Peterites were shot out in the 1967/68 season. Sebs who were made to follow on with the task of erasing a massive 279 runs crumbled again. Resuming from their overnight score of 43 for 1 they failed miserably once again as they lost their remaining nine wickets for the addition of only 67 runs and were bowled out for 110.

Royal - 304 for 8 declared in 59.2 overs (Kithruwan Withanage 142, Haroon Mowjood 60, Anjula Rajapakse 28, Chalaka Bogoda 19: Salitha de Mel 3 for 67, Anuk de Alwis 2 for 51, Anoj Gayashan 2 for 63)

St. Sebastian's - 25 in 17.2 overs (Bhanuka Rajapakse 4 for 0, Lakshitha de Silva 4 for 15, Yasitha Abeykoon 2 for 3) and (43 for 1 o’night) 110 in 34.1 overs (Deshan Dias 24, Yasitha Abeykoon 3 for 19, Lakshitha de Silva 3 for 19, Bhanuka Rajapakse 2 for 25, Sahan Hettiarachchi 2 for 14)
Spin trio rout Wesley

Left arm spinners Dilanka Auwardt (with a match bag of 8 for 50) and Dilshan Perera along with right arm spinner Suren Silva helped St. Benedict’s to rout Wesley by an innings and 39 runs at Campbell Park yesterday.

The Benedictines put themselves in a strong position on day one making 201 and bowling out the Wesleyites for a paltry 82 and then had them struggling again on 5 for 2.

The Wesleyites resuming their second innings from their overnight score of 5 for 2 were not able to make any headway as the spin trio ran through the batting to bundle the home team for 80.

St. Benedict's - 201 in 70 overs (Nisal Fonseka 56, Suren Silva 37, Rukshan Weerasinghe 25, Dilanka Auwardt 19, Heshan Chamara 19; Pasan Samarasekera 4 for 23, Dulanjana Wijesinghe 3 for 63, Sachin Jayawardena 2 for 50)

Wesley - 82 in 29 overs (Dulanjana Wijesinghe 38, Sachin Jayawardena 16; Dilshan Perera 4 for 17, Dilanka Auwardt 3 for 20, Dinushan Wanigasekera 2 for 18) and (Overnight 5 for 2 in 3 overs) 80 in 47.4 overs (Pasan Samarasekara 29, Dulanjana Wijesinghe 32, Dilanka Auwardt 5 for 30, Suren Silva 5 for 16)
Petes record second successive win

St. Peter’s continued their winning spree when they recorded their second successive win with an innings and 117 runs victory over Kalutara MV at Bambalapitiya yesterday.

Kalutara MV - 86 in 33.4 overs (Kushan Samantha 40 n.o.: Chathura Peiris 6 for 20, Akshu Fernando 2 for 4, Vinod Perera 2 for 11) and 173 in 59.1 overs (Dananjaya Madusanka 35, Isuru Budhhika 27, D.Uthpala 29 n.o.:Chathura Peiris 3 for 30, Vinod Perera 3 for 42)

St. Peter's - (352/6 o’night) 376 for 6 declared (Angelo Perera 157, Angelo Emmanuel 54, Andri Berenger 42, Chathura Peiris 50 n.o.: Chamika Madushan 2 for 39)

Ghouse slams season first double ton

Zahira’s Isham Ghouse had the honour of hitting the first double ton of the ongoing Under 19 inter-school cricket season. He slammed an unbeaten 200 in only 173 balls which had 31 boundaries and two sixes in their match against Devananda concluded at Maradana. Zahira won by an innings and 17 runs.

Devananda - 129 in 40.3 overs (Rishika Theekshana 36, Supun Priyankara 20: Isham Ghouse 6 for 24, Mohamed Irshad 3 for 43) and 204 in 65 overs (Supun Priyankara 64, amith Kumara 45: Ishan Ibunu 4 for 51, Isham Ghouse 3 for 54, Mohamed Irshad 2 for 41)

Zahira - (229/3 o’night) 350 for 6 declared in 68 overs (Mohamed Imras 76, Ulfath amith 19, Ishan Ghouse 200 n.o.: S. de Soysa 2 for 20, S. Suranga 2 for 85)