Thivanka and Chanaka steer Petes to grand victory

Peterite spin duo Thivanka Silva and Chanaka Fernando with match bags of 10 for 71 and 8 for 64 steered St Peter’s to an innings and 30 runs win over Trinity at Bambalapitiya yesterday to give the side an auspicious start to their inter-school cricket season.

The duo broke the backbone of Trinity’s first innings when they shared eight wickets between them and they repeated the feat with Thivanka ending on an impressive bowling figure of 6 for 19 while Chanaka scalped up the other four for 21 runs which saw the Trinitians requiring just 80 runs to avert an innings defeat being bundled out for a mere 50 runs.

Earlier in the day the home team who were in a strong position of 108 for 1 with overnight batsman and Sri Lanka youth player Srimantha Wijeyaratne unbeaten on 70 went on to make 238 with Srimantha adding a further ten runs being out for 80 that had 11 boundaries and a six.

Petes were home for tea with the match ending just before 3.00 p.m. And they beat the rain too. Trinity did not have the luck as it began to rain once the match was over.

Trinity: 158 (R. Bandara 36, W. Munasinghe 31, S. Pathirana 31, Chanaka Fernando 4 for 43, Thivanka Silva 4 for 52) and 50 (Rasika Munasinghe 32.; Thivanka Silva 6 for 19, Chanaka Fernando 4 for 21)

St. Peter's: (108/1 o’night) 238 (Srimantha Wijeyaratne 80, Suranga Rodrigo 37, Anuk Silva 31, Ruwan Wickramanayake 28, Andrea Berenger 21.; Sachith Pathirana 4 for 59, Chamath Umadantha 3 for 70)

Vandersay and Kern prop Wesley

Right arm spinner Jefferey Vandersay with a six wicket haul and half tons from Sachindra Rupasinghe who made a knock of 80 with 11 boundaries and two sixes and Sri Lanka youth player Ryan Kern helped Wesley to take honours in their drawn inter-school match against Isipathana played at Campbell Park.

Isipathana: (160/5 o’night) 194 (Siraj Senaratne 45, Lilan Fernando 26, Ifran Ismail 25, Chirantha de Silva 19.; Jefferey Vandersay 6 for 61, Dulanjan Wijesinghe 3 for 48)

Wesley 195 for 8 (Sachindra Rupasinghe 80, Ryan Kern 54, Dulanjana Wijesinghe 18, Lahiru Fernando 17; Lilan Fernando 3 for 30, Wadiba Perera 3 for 56)

Sebs dominate drawn match at Moratuwa

St Sebastian’s dominated the proceedings of their drawn inter-school encounter against Nalanda concluded at Moratuwa yesterday. The match as in the first day was called off at 3.30 p.m. due to bad weather.

Nevertheless the match turned out to be a memorable one for opener Rajitha Mendis who slammed a fluent knock of 163 which enabled his side to make a formidable 309 for 9 before declaring. The Nalandians in their turn resuming on their overnight score of 12 for 1 were able to muster only 204.

St Sebastian’s 309 for 9 declared (Rajitha Mendis 163, Deshan Fernando 29, Trevin Fernando 23, Janitha Jayawardena 33 n.o.; Amal Atapattu 2 for 33, Ashan Priyanjana 2 for 83) and 79 for 3 (Rajitha Mendis 48)

Nalanda (12/1 o’night) 204 (Ashan Priyanjana 53, Nipuna Karunanayake 27, Chethan de Silva 42 n.o.; Sanjaya Fernando 3 for 37, Janitha Jayawardena 3 for 38, Rashen Fernando 2 for 45)

Chamalka and Ranidu in match saving stand

Chamalka Gamage and Ranidu Gamage put on a match saving partnership of 99 for the ninth wicket after Royal spinner Kanishka Boteju rocked the Thurstan batting in the early stages in the drawn encounter played at Thurstan grounds in Reid Avenue.

Thurstan struggling on 141 for 8 recovered through the batting skills of Chamalka and Ranidu to post a respectable 238 in reply to Royal’s score of 250 for 7 declared. This game too was called off after the conclusion of Thurstan’s innings due to rain.

Royal 250 for 9 declared (Kushal Janith 89, Lochana Premaratne 40, Kavisha de Silva 34, Charith Fernando 29 n.o.; Umesh Karunaratne 4 for 98)

Thurstan (7/0 o’night) 238 (Chamalka Gamage 99, Umesh Karunaratne 25, Ranidu Gamage 24.; Kanishka Boteju 4 for 38)

Match drawn at Mt Lavinia

The inter-school cricket encounter between S. Thomas’ and St Anthony’s played at Mt Lavinia ended in a draw with rain forcing to stop the match at 4.00 p.m. S. Thomas': (215/9 o’night) 245 for 9 declared (Ashan Fernando 58, R. Nilushan 60, Thilina Nugawela 30, Dilshan Manamperi 21 n.o.; Sahan Palihakkara 3 for 45, Adel Riyal 3 for 85) and 18 for 1. St Anthony’s 136 (Adel Reyal 50, Gimhan Dissanayake 23; Naveed Ghany 6 for 46, Jehan Thahir 3 for 10)