Shanuka, Nikshy and Minhaj race to magical 1000 runs
Three outstanding cricketers on the school circuit, Shanuka Dulaj of Prince of Wales, Nikshy Ahamed of Zahira and Minhaj Jaleel of Thurstan reached a dreamy mark of1000 runs in a season.
The achievement was made extra special by the fact that the trio celebrated the 1000-run mark with tons. Shanuka, although reaching the mark with 34 runs in the first innings against De Mazenod, made a fine 148 in the second innings.
In contrast, Nikshy reached the mark with a quick-fire knock of 116 against Royal Panadura while Minhaj, having made 117 in the first inning against Maliyadeva, reached the mark by cracking 83 in the second innings in the same match.
The first of the three batsmen to reach the milestone was Shanuka, who has accumulated 1158 runs from 13 matches, which includes four tons and six half tons with his best knock being 178 against St Peter’s while the other three came against Dharmasoka MV Ambalangoda (127), Thurstan (113) and De Mazenod (148).
Nikshy also reached the milestone in 13 matches. He has three tons and four half tons to his name with a top score of 125 against Revatha MMV Balapitiya while his other two tons came against Joseph Vaz (108) and Royal Panadura (116).
Minhaj too touched the mark in 13 matches.
He has struck four tons and six half tons with a best of 117 against Maliyadeva. He scored his other three tons against Wesley (109), St Benedict’s (107) and Nalanda (102 n.o).
Among the top school bowlers, Trinity’s right-arm spinner Raveen Sayer has now taken over 85 wickets and looks set to reach the 1000-wicket milestone this season.
Trinity continued their winning run, recording their sixth outright win with an innings and 33 runs conquest over the hapless President’s Rajagiriya two days ago. Sayer finished that game with a match bag of eight wickets.
Trinity, along with Richmond, are having a whale of time. Richmond has five outright wins under their belt and both are unbeaten so far.
| Muneer — Bata-the Sunday Times Pick-of-the-Week
Shamsul Muneer, the right-arm leg-spinner of St. Anthony’s College Wattala, became the first recipient of a valuable sports shoe presented by Bata Shoe Company.  Shamsul Muneer (pictured second from right) received his prize from Vikas Anand (second from left), the Company Manager of Bata Sri Lanka at the Bata showroom situated at Dahamco Building in Ratmalana. Also in the picture are Ayan Bhattacharyan (left), the Retail Manager and Gayani Rajapaksha (right), the Costing and Efficiency Manager for Bata Sri Lanka. - Pic by Ranjith Perera This reward to the schoolboy cricketers, was initiated last season and was successfully conducted for three months running, becoming a much awaited segment of the annual Bata-the Sunday Times Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year competition. This season too, eginning from January Bata will present sport shoes for a period of three months. Muneer was named as the Pick-of-the-Week in the final week of January for his outstanding bowling achievement of 13 wickets for 83 runs, against Sri Devananda College Ambalangoda. This performance was besides the half century he scored as a batsman which paved way for St. Anthony’s Wattala to a convincing 5-wicket win. Muneer recorded an eight-wicket haul followed by another haul of five wickets, to complete a match bag of 13 scalps. |