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Sports

Bens end 37-year drought, beat Joes by eight wickets
By Bernie Wijesekera
It was a red letter day for the Benedictine cricketers and for the Saverimuthupulle cricketing clan at Darley Road yesterday. The Kotahena school defeated traditional rivals St. Joseph's by eight wickets in an exciting game.

The Joes batting first made 171. The Bens went to town by hitting up 244 for 7 declared, to lead by 73 runs, thanks to an attractive 74 from Lasitha Hettiarachchi. He had 11 fours and a six in his knock. Lasantha Perera weighed in with a fine 50 with two fours and three sixes.

The Joes in their second essay were baffled by the leg-spin bowling of skipper Jeremy Saverimuthupulle, who captured 4 for 32, to bring his tally of 'scalps' to 41 this season.

The Bens set to make 32 runs in seven overs, made it by losing two wickets in the process, with four balls to spare amidst great jubilation from all present. This was the fourth win by St. Benedict's, since the inception of this traditional match. The last time the Bens won was in 1966 under Felix Dias. The Joes were led by Alan de Costa then.

In 1964 the unbeaten Benedictine team led by Sunil Fernando defeated the Darley Road school. Yesterday's win was made possible by the Bens after 37 years.
Jeremy, the present skipper, led the team last year too. His brother Joel led the Bens in 1999 while 'Papa"Joe, a versatile sportsman, led the Kotahena school in 1969.
The Benedictines are presently coached by former Ananda and Police cricketer Udayananda Perera. A keen student of the game, he is doing a good job with his charges.

St.Joseph's - 171 and 104 in 53 overs (T. Ariyawansa 20, Deshan Bastiampillai 18, P.Pallewela 13; Ferein Silva 3 for 18, Jeremy Saverimuthupulle 4 for 32,Lahiru Jayampathy 2 for 22)

St. Benedict's - 244 for 7 dec.Overnight 141 for 2 (L. Hettiarachchi 74,Lasantha Perera 50; Angelo Mathew 3 for 63; R. Weerasinghe 2 for 42,Ramesh OPerera 2 for42) and 32 for 2 in 6.2 overs (Amila Madurapperuma 20, J. Saverimuthupulle 8)

St. Sebastians on first innings
By Shamseer Jaleel
St. Sebastian's, Moratuwa, one of the strongest teams taking part in the Inter-School cricket tournament this year, scored a close first innings win of four runs win over St.Peter's at Bambalapitiya yesterday.

Continuing from their overnight score of 109 for 8, St. Sebastian's scored 139 in reply to the 135 made by the Peterites.

Batting a second time St. Peter's scored 184 with S. Gallage contributing 58.
Set with a target of scoring 181 off 23 overs for an outright win, St. Sebastian's scored 60 for 3 at close.

St. Peter's - 135 and 184 (H. Fernando 24, G. De Silva 35, S. Gallage 58; M. Silva 3 for 23, N. Silva 4 for 15) St. Sebastian's - 109 for 8 overnight 139 all out (D. Abeydeera 17, L. Anthony 29, N. Fernando 20; S. Boralessa 4 for 47) and 60 for 3 (D. Cooray 26 n.o; H. Fernando 3 for 8)

Trinity retain Kannangara trophy
By Aubrey Kuruppu
The Trinity-Wesley Inter-School game at the Asgiriya Stadium ended in a draw. However in the absence of an outright win, the home team retained the R.L.Kannangara Trophy.

In reply to Wesley's 190, Trinity were able to muster only 164 for 9. The top order didn't really oblige and it was left to Udumulla and Punchihewa to shore up the total. Paceman Sajith Colombage impressed in capturing five wickets.

Wesley - 190 (C.Karunaratne 43, S. Colombage 32, A. Kumara 27, S. Siriratne 12; C. Dumbarage 4 for 48, S. Pathirana 3 for 30). Trinity - 164 for 9 (A. Udumulla 48, R. Punchjihewa 32 n.o, H. Mendis 14, C. Dumbarage 15 n.o, S. Pathirana 10; S. Colombage 5 for 52)

Sri Rahula bowlers on top
Sri Rahula bowlers combined well to dismiss Devananda for 155 in their Inter-School cricket match at Peradeniya. However, the visitors struck back to have Sri Rahula at 28 for 3. Opener Sajith Kumara made an exciting 53 for Devananda. Medium pacies Asela Gunaratne, Vindika Prasanna and off spinner Samitha Fernando were among the wickets.

Devananda - 155 (S.Kumara 53, V.Prasanna 29, L. D. Silva 17, D. Gunasinghe 12; V. Prasanna 3 for 39, A. Gunaratne 3 for 27, S. Fernando 2 for 8) Sri Rahula - 28 for 3 (S. Fernando 10 n.o, T. Sampath 15 n.o; O. Lasantha 2 for 13) - A.K.

Nalanda held to a draw by Thurstan
Thurstan College made to follow on by Nalanda did well to hold them to a draw at Campbell Place yesterday. Nalanda who were invited to bat first made 222 all out. The visitors in reply (86 for 8 overnight) were bowled out for 119 runs. Spinners D.Kuweju (off spin) and leg spinner Rupasinghe spun a web to share 8 wickets between them.

The Nalanda innings was bolstered by a ninth wicket of 70 runs between Rupasinghe and debutant Tharun Ranasinghe 15 n.o. The pair propped the innings and took the score along to 222 all out. Incidentally Tharun is the son of late Anura Ranasinghe. He shows much promise. He bowls left-arm and bats right like his father, a former Sri Lanka test player.

Thurstan were greatly helped by Damith Indika who scored a dashing 150 n.o. Early in the innings he fell, caught and bowled by Ranasinghe, but the head umpire after consulting the leg-umpire, the umpire said 'no'. Apparently profiting by this Indika went on a run-spree to score a dashing 150 n.o with 16 fours, two sixes in 138 balls, for Thurstan to amass 330 for 6 at close. Opener Maasmulla 67 (with 9 fours and a six) batted aggressively to boost the total. Both teams suffered by poor umpiring.

Nalanda - 222 (Gihan Rupasinghe 52; A. Umayangana 3 for 34, D.Indika 3 for 36)
Thurstan - 119 - overnight 86 for 8-( D. Kuweju 4 for 29, Gihan Rupasinghe 4 for 25) and 330 for 6 at close (Damith Indika 150 n.o, T. Masmulla 67, S. Wijesundare 16; D. Kuweju 3 for 83)

Narrow shave for STC
S. Thomas', Mt. Lavinia had a narrow shave against Ananda College in their Inter-School cricket match concluded at Mt. Lavinia yesterday and succumbed to a first innings defeat. In reply to S. Thomas' first innings score of 149, the Anandians scored a massive 251 for 7 declared with J. Sriyapala scoring a superb 107 with 17 hits to the ropes.

S. Thomas' batting a second time were 84 for 9 and escaped defeat by the skin of their teeth. Thomian skipper Arjuna Rajawasam scored a patient 22 to enabling them to force a draw this game. At close the Thomians were 18 runs short of making the Anandians bat again.

C. Jayaweera with 5 for 27 and A. Ranasinghe 4 for 30, almost ripped through the entire Thomian defence. S. Thomas’ - 149 (A. Jayaweera 4 for 49, A. Ranasinghe 4 for 33) and 84 for 9 (Arjuna Rajawasan 22; C.Jayaweera 5 for 27, A. Ranasinghe 4 for 30)
Ananda - 251 for 7 dec - 91 for 4 overnight (J. Sriyapala 107, T. Dissanayake 60, D. Kularatne 35, P. Botheju 21; S. Mendis 2 for 71) - S.J.

Open Windsurfing C’ships today
The Open Windsurfing Championships 2003 will be held at Bentota Beach on Sunday, January 12. This Championship is organized at the request of Chairman Sri Lanka Tourist Board by Lanka Sportreizen and Windsurfing Association under the auspices of Sri Lanka Tourist Board. In the picture are some of the Windsurfers practicing for the event.

Trophies to be awarded at this Championships are: LSR Windsurfing Championship Trophy to the winner, Baron De Livera Challenge Trophy to the most outstanding Windsurfer, Thusitha Nanayakkara Challenge Trophy in memory of the eminent journalist of "Kreeda" Thusitha Nanayakkara of Associated Newspapers Ltd., to the youngest and most enterprising Windsurfer and the Trophy awarded by the Bentota/Buruwela Hoteliers Association.

Count Down to the World Cup 2003
Host teams fail to win World Cup in 1992 World Cup 1992
By Shamseer Jaleel
We continue our story of past World Cups with the one held in 1992 sponsored by the Benson & Hedges held in Australia & New Zealand in February and March 1992. Once again the host team/teams failed to win the World Cup. England hosted in 1975, 1979, 1983 but they could not win and the 1987 were co-hosted by India and Pakistan but neither of the teams could win it. Out of 39 matches 14 were played in New Zealand, on slow paced pitches, which helped the home team.

Floodlight was introduced for the first time in a World Cup match. Since there were no spare days available for the matches, a new rule on rain effected matches, where the target score was reduced according to the lowest scoring overs of the team batting first.

Weather put South Africa out of the World Cup, they needed 22 runs from 13 balls to go and suddenly it started to rain. When the match began a few minutes later they were set the same target in 1 ball. Because of this England went through to the finals. Meanwhile in 1983 World Cup in England, the Pakistan-New Zealand match went to the 2nd day because of bad weather. But there was a result since a spare day was allocated for all matches.

Though this World Cup was a fair one since all 9 teams have to face each other once the rules were weird for the team batting second. At Adelaide England shot out Pakistan for low 74 in 40.2 overs. Rain once again played havoc in cricket, after resuming England was set a tartet of 64 in 16 overs. But it rained again and England was 24-1 off 8 overs where Pakistan scored 1 point for the no decision, which took them into the Semi-finals.

Aravinda De Silva led Sri-Lanka and the team comprised of Asanka Gurusinghe, Don Anurasiri, Chandika Hathurusinghe, Sanath, Jayasuriya, Ruwan Kalpage, Roshan Mahanama, Champaka Ramanayake, Arjuna Ranatunga, Romesh Ratnayake, Athula Samarasekera, Hashan Tilakaratne, Gamini Wickramasinghe and Kapila Wijegunawardena. Since Romesh Ratnayake was injured Grame Labrooy replaced him.

Only three players will represent Sri Lanka in 2003 World Cup. They are Aravinda de Silva, Sanath Jayasuriya and Hashan Tilakaratne. How Sri Lanka fared in 1992 World Cup Sri-Lanka won 2 matches, one against Zimbabwe at New Plymouth Australia and the other one against strong South-Africans at Basin Reserve in Wellington, New Zealand. It was high scoring match, which produced 625 runs where both teams scoring more than 300 runs.

Zimbabwe scored 312 for 5 in 50 overs with Andy Flower scoring a magnificent 115 and Andy Waller and Jeff Arnott chipped in with 83 & 52 respectively. Asanka Gurusinghe took 2 for 72 off his 10 overs. In reply Sri-Lanka scored the required runs off 49.2 overs. Half centuries were scored by Roshan Mahanama (59), Athula Samarasekera (75) and Arjuna Ranatunga (88). Andy Flower was man-of-the-match for his superb century.

In the first Semi-Final in New Zealand, the home team scored 262 for 7 off 50 overs with Martin Crowe massacred the Pakistani bowlers to all parts of the ground with 91 not out and Ken Rutherford chipped in with 50 while Wasim Akram took 2 for 40 off 10 overs and Aaqib Javed took 1 for 45 off his 10 overs. Pakistan replied strongly with 264 for 6 for 6 off 49 overs with Inzamam (60 not out), Javed Miandad (57 not out), Rameez Raja (44), Imran Khan (44).

While the 2nd semi-final was played in Australia where England scored 252 for 6 off 45 overs in rain affected match where Graham Hick scored 83. Donald and Pringle shared 2 wickets a piece. South Africa replied with 232 for 6 in 43 overs with Hudson (46), Rhodes (43) while Illingworth and Small took 2 wickets a piece.

So the Final was played at the MCG between England and Pakistan. Pakistan scored 249 for 6 off 50 overs with Imran Khan (72), Javed Miandad (58), Inzamam (42) and Akram (33) while Pringle took 3 for 22 and Botham took 1 for 42. England replied with 227 off 49.2 overs with Fairbrother (62) and Lamb scored 31 while Akram (3 for 49), Aaquib (2 for 27), Mushtaq (3 for 41) took the wickets. Wasim Akram was the man of the match. Imran Khan captained Pakistan and Graham Gooch led England.

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