Trinity College Kandy for the second year running recorded their tenth outright win in the Under-19 inter-school cricket season and they achieved it in style with back to back wins within a space of four days.
The Trinitians first humbled S. Thomas’ by an innings on Saturday and then three days later they overcame Zahira by nine wickets with both matches played at Asgiriya.
Trinity according to coach Sampath Perera has completed their assignments and maybe they are hoping to play another match before they confront traditional rivals St. Anthony’s in their annual big match.
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| Ananda skipper Pasindu Madushan in action. (Pic by Ranjith Perera) |
Apart from those two wins there were seven other outright victories recorded from the matches that were concluded over the weekend. St. Sebastian’s too are going great guns as they recorded their seventh outright win with a massive 205 runs over St. Aloysius Galle.
Wesley too recorded back-to-back wins as they followed up their stunning win over Royal the previous week with a comfortable innings win over Dharmapala.
Zahira though undergoing a defeat to Trinity got the better of Lumbini MV whom they beat by an innings. This was before they went down to Trinity. Royal Panadura in recent times has shown that they could rub shoulders with top schools in the metropolis when they inflicted the second defeat of Lumbini MV in three days to record their second win of the season.
From the outstations St. Patrick’s Jaffna too joined the winning wagon when they trounced the fancied St. Thomas Matale side and the other teams to record victories being St. Thomas Matara over St. Anne’s Kurunegala and Moratu MV over Tissa Central Kalutara.
Royal Colombo registered two first inning wins over Prince of Wales’ and Thurstan. In the match against Prince of Wales they were struggling but came back. The next match against Thurstan saw them scoring a mammoth 456 but even then they had to be satisfied with a first inning win.
The biggest surprises came from Revatha MMV Balapitiya and Mahinda College. Revatha MMV who have not been able to make any impression stunned the fancied Maris Stella who seems to have fallen back in their performances.
Maris Stella began the season on a high note but surprisingly lost outright to new entrants to the top league Gurukula MV before their match against Revatha MMV.
Mahinda’s surprise was their domination over Nalanda against whom they registered a first inning win. Nalanda as mentioned the previous week seem to be a disoriented side as almost nothing has come right for them but they will have to change their approach to the game before the big one against Ananda.
Traditional rivals St. Sebastian’s and Prince of Wales’ too recorded first inning wins with both the teams being successful over De Mazenod and Mahanama respectively while St. Benedict’s and Ananda too registered first inning wins over DSS and St. Sylvester’s.
Two cricketers Thurstan skipper Sajeewa Salgado and Vidyartha’s Ruwan Bandara too reached the milestone of 1000 runs in a season. Sajeewa achieved his feat against Royal and Ruwan in the match against Carey.
With the Under-19 inter-schools at its tail end of the season the focus in the coming days will be the traditional big matches played around the island. The big match fever started off with the 49th encounter between Thurstan and Isipathana. This week two big matches are down to be played which are between St. Peter’s and St. Joseph’s at P. Sara Oval Stadium and Ananda and Nalanda at the SSC ground. - MSA |
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