St Sebastian’s, St Joseph’s, Mahinda enter semi finals
The four quarter final matches of the Under 17 Inter-School Division One cricket tournament which was played last week saw St Sebastian’s, St Joseph’s and Mahinda making it to the semi finals with easy wins against St Anthony’s Wattala, Royal Colombo and last year’s runner St Anthony’s Katugastota .
The match between S. Thomas’ and Nalanda ended in a thrilling tie and the match is scheduled to be replayed.
St Sebastian’s nine wicket win against giant killers St Anthony’s Wattala played at Reid Avenue was the best of the three wins which came on the back of an unbeaten ton by Dunith Jayatunga.
But credit cannot be taken away from the Antonians as their batsmen frustrated the Sebs bowlers and managed to last the full quota of 50 overs after being invited to take first lease of the wicket.
Even though there were no big scores in the Antonian batting line they kept the bowlers at bay and useful contributions coming from Romesh Suranga (38), Avishka Tharindu (33), Kaveesha Dulanjana (28) and Abdul Rahuman (21) helped them end with a modest score of 207 for 9.
St Sebastian’s in their run chase saw the openers Savindu Rodrigo and Dunith Jayathunga giving them a flying start putting on 118 runs before they were separated with the dismissal of Savindu who made a 43.
That was the only success that the Antonian bowlers could achieve as Dunith along with Sukitha Prasanna sent them in another leather hunt as the pair associated in an unbroken 92 runs for the second wicket for the Sebs to race to the target in the 45th over with Dunith and Sukitha remaining unbeaten on 103 and 43 respectively. St Sebastian’s will now meet the winner of the match between S. Thomas’ and Nalanda.
St Joseph’s one of the successful teams in the tournament and also one of the contenders for the title had little difficulty in brushing off the challenge of Royal from whom much was expected. It almost turned out to be a one sided as the Josephians came out victorious by 128 runs.
The match winner for the Darley Road boys was young Dunith Wellalage who ended with a fine allround performance by making a top score of 67 and then bagging five scalps.
Dunith apart from his knock put on a valuable 101 runs partnership for the fourth wicket with Yesith Rupasinghe who made 61 after opener Johanne de Zilva made 21 which helped St Joseph’s to end with a modest score of 247.
Royal in their run chase had an inauspicious start losing their first wicket on two. A third wicket stand of 45 runs between Kamil Mishara and Ahan Wickramasinghe was the only highlight of the innings.
Royal struggling on 103 for 5 in the 33rd over lost their remaining five wickets for the addition of only 14 runs as they ended their innings with a low score of 119 runs.
Mahinda made mince meat of last year’s runner St Anthony’s Katugastota whom they outclassed by ten wickets thanks to their openers Navod Paranavithana who remained unbeaten on 50 and Kaushka Sanketh (36 n.o.) who together steered them to the victory target of 91 runs in just eight overs.
Earlier the Antonians batting first saw them in tatters with five of their top batsmen back in the pavilion with just 44 runs on the board. The remaining five batsmen was also able to muster only 44 more runs as they ended with a low score of 88 runs which took them 34.3 overs. Mahinda will now meet St Joseph’s in the semi final.
S. Thomas’ being bundled out for 113 in 33.3 overs and Nalanda making the same score in 50 overs was the story in the quarter final match that ended in a tie at Darley Road.
However the Thomians will have to blame themselves for the poor batting performance put in and then after having the Nalandians tottering on 63 for 8 in the 22nd over they left them off the hook as the remaining four batsmen denied and frustrated the Thomian to successfully negotiate nearly 28 overs.
Nalanda’s ninth wicket pair Thamindu Kamalasooriya and J. Wasala put in stiff resistance and batted for over 100 balls, precisely 106 adding 25 runs.
When the last batsman walked in they had to face a further 68 balls to deny the Thomians who almost had the win in their hand with Nalanda on 88 for 9, the pair just stuck on and in the last over they were left to get just three runs but they only managed two which saw the game ending in a thrilling tie.