Five outright wins for Lumbini MV, Risith cracks first double ton
The third term matches of the Schools Under-19 2014/2015 season which began in early September and with the Christmas season nearing is bow at it’s tail end. The weather which is expected to be at the worse during this period hampered most of the matches which no doubt is going to take a toll for the top teams.
St John’s Jaffna’s left-arm spinner Raviendran Lohathieswar the bowler with the best bowling figures of 9 for 29 in action. - Picture by courtesy Gopikrishna Gopalakrishnan
The newest entrant to the school cricket tournament was Royal College Colombo whose authorities opted to skip the tournament previously. Of course the decision taken by them is going to benefit the youngsters and in general the game of cricket.
But the sorry state of affairs is the attitude taken by the organisers, the Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association (SLSCA) in conducting the tournament during the rainy season which cannot be prevented that puts some of the teams in a fix when the match is washed out without a ball being bowled.
However from the many matches that was played during the three months beginning from September saw Lumbini MV being the most successful team so far.
From the seven matches that they played, they succeeded in gaining five outright wins against Revatha MMV Balapitiya by innings, Carey by innings, De Mazenod by eight wickets, President’s Rajagiriya by nine wickets and Dharmasoka MV Ambalangoda by eight wickets.
S. Thomas’ Mt. Lavinia was the other successful team recording three outright wins against Dharmasoka MV by innings, St. Anthony’s Katugastota by seven wickets and President’s Rajagiriya by innings.
Trinity along with Thurstan and St. Benedict’s have all recorded two outright wins each. Trinity has played only three matches with outright wins against President’s Rajagiriya and Moratu MV. Thurstan have recorded outright wins over Carey and Wesley while St. Benedict’s outright wins being against Wesley and St. Aloysius Galle.
Richmond the champion schools team for the last two years along with St. Sylvester’s, Dharmaraja, St. Servatius Matara, Gurukula MV Kelaniya, St. Joseph’s, Bandaranayake MMV Gampaha and Royal Colombo have won one each.
In the lower division St. Sebastian’s Katuneriya, St. John’s Panadura, Kalutara MV Sri Sumangala Panadura and Debarawewa National School have recorded two outright wins. St. Sebastian’s recorded wins against Devapathiraja MMV Rathgama and Asoka MV while the Johnians wins were over Sri Devananda MV Ambalangoda and St. Thomas’ Matale.
Kalutara MV beat Sastrananda MV and Raddoluwa MMV while Sri Sumangala’s wins being Sri Jayawardenapura MMV Kotte and S. de S. Jayasinghe MMV Dehiwala and Debarawewa NS got the better of Sastrananda MV and Tissa MMV Kalutara.
Four schools St. Mary’s Kegalle, Devapathiraja MMV who was promoted, St. Anthony’s Wattala and St. Thomas’ Matara have one win each against St. Sebastian’s Katuneriya, St. Thomas’ Matara, S de S. Jayasinghe MMV and Sastrananada MV.
In the northern district St. John’s Jaffna have so far been the most successful side having secured three outright wins over St. Peter’s Negombo by innings, Kokuvil Hindu College by ten wickets and Madeena Central Kandy by innings.
Meanwhile looking at the individual performances according to statistics gathered in both batting and bowling in all the segments, there have been 16 tons scored so far in the division and 18 tons in the division two.
From the tons that were scored Risith Upamal Dias of Dharmaloka MV Kelaniya had the honour of hitting the first double ton for the season when the right hand batsman cracked an unbeaten 200 against St. Mary’s Kegalle and he also has another knock of 152 against Vidyartha Kandy.
Avishka Fernando of St. Sebastian’s Moratuwa who has two tons (139 vs DSS), (113 vs Royal Panadura) to his name became the first batsman to reach the 500 runs mark which he achieved against Nalanda. Avishka reached the feat from five matches comprising ten innings with two not outs.
Kamindu Mendis of Richmond Galle too has scored two tons while the other centurions in the top division are Tharushan Iddamalgoda (Lumbini MV), Thenuka Dabare (Lumbini MV), Arjun Jayasinghe (S. Thomas’), Raveen Tharindu (Dharmasoka MV), Charith Asalanka (Richmond), Mishan Fernando (Moratu MV), Rusiru Ravishanker (Royal Panadura), Pramod Maduwantha (Isipathana), Himasha Liyanage (Dharmapala), Dineth Thimodya (St. Peter’s), Chenutha Wickramasinghe (S. Thomas’) and Hasith Lanka (Prince of Wales’).