Sachin is building castles but, Malinga is fighting
By the eleventh week of the 36th Bata-the Sunday Times Most Popular Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year 2015 competition Sachin Dalpethado has made the All-Island Schools contest a trying one for his rivals.
The St. Peter’s College allrounder has surpassed the five-digit mark to reach 12659 votes from last week, an addition of 3667 votes. His lead from closest rival Malinga Amarasinghe of Nalanda College has collected 3297 votes this time –way better than of last week.
Catching up Sachin will be a hard task for others but Malinga has the potential to at least close upon him or overtake, with the competition set to come to an end in four weekends. Despite standing way behind the leader, Malinga too has impressed a lot in his progress. Malinga has managed to add 2502 votes to his tally, taking his total up to 9362.
Aravinda Akurugoda of St. Joseph’s College will have to expect more to happen as his tally of 4308.
Next to him at fourth is Himesha Ranganath of Royal College Panadura with 2126 votes. Himesha was the leader for the first three weeks but by now his is a distant dream.
At fifth is St. Joseph’s College skipper Pathum Madushanka whose progress has slowed down gradually. Randev Pathirana of Royal College Colombo, the reigning title holder, has a lot of miles to cover is he wants to record a double win. Now he has collected 1438 votes, just an addition of 41 votes. Randev is followed by Lakshan Rodrigo of St. Peter’s College, Charith Asalanka of Richmond College, Shehan Weerasinghe of Zahira College and Harith Samarasinghe of Royal College Colombo who remain as they were in the previous few weeks within the top ten.
The Emerging Schools category is still the forte of Nipun Malinga of Vidyaloka College Galle who continues to hold the lead over the only other contender Udith Dilsara of St. Peter’s College Negombo. Nipun maintains a healthy lead over Udith, whose movement is not so striking.
Sahan Thennakoon of Lyceum International Panadura continues to lead the International Schools segment but it is more likely that his only rival Shimraz Shahill of Alethea Interantional School could strike back any moment. The deficit between the two has trimmed down to 476 with Shimraz adding 346 to his tally and Sahan moving forward with 566 more votes than last week. But it may worry Sahan a bit as Shimraz has suddenly opened striking heavily than he used to be.
Coupons of the 36th Bata-the Sunday Times Most Popular Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year 2015 will appear on Wijeya Newspaper’s dailies, the Daily Mirror and Lankadeepa and also its weekend English issue, the Sunday Times and the Sinhala weekly Deshaya. Readers will be able to send in as much as coupons in favour of their favourite schoolboy cricketer until mid June.
| Name – School All-Island Schools Readers prizes for to: 1. Rashini Malisha, Muthugalthuduwa, Harumalgoda, Habaraduwa. |