Trinity, last year’s best schoolboy cricket team, are going great guns this year too and are continuing their good form when they recorded their fourth outright win in the ongoing Under 19 inter-school cricket season with a comfortable ten wickets win over Wesley.
From the eight matches they have played so far they have gained outright wins over Kingswood, St Aloysius Galle, Isipathana and Wesley which was their last win while registering first inning wins over Mahanama Colombo, DSS and Nalanda with the match against St. Peter’s ending in a no decision.
Of the matches that were concluded in the first week of January saw as much as seven outright wins being recorded. Apart from Trinity the other schools to record wins were Richmond, St. Joseph’s, Ananda, Sri Devananda MV Ambalangoda, Siri Piyaratana MMV Padukka and S. de S. Jayasinghe MMV Dehiwala.
Three schools Richmond, St Joseph’s and Ananda who overcame Isipathana, St Sebastian’s and Ananda coasted to their second wins of the season while S. de S. Jayasinghe playing in the division two category outclassed St. John’s to record their sixth outright win.
In the other matches played Royal registered a first inning win over St. Anthony’s Katugastota while the match between St. Peter’s and St. Benedict’s ended in a high scoring draw while the matches between St. Aloysuis Galle-St. Thomas Matara, Mahanama – Maliyadeva and St. Thomas Matara and Devapathiraja MMV Rathgama too ended in draws.
The tournament that is being conducted by the Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association where 36 teams divided into four groups of nine teams are contesting is going to be interesting when the matches get into full swing.
Trinity started the New Year with a crushing ten wicket over the Wesleyites after putting themselves in a strong position on day one. The architect of their win was right arm spinner Janishka Premasinghe who laid the foundation.
Janishka’s five wicket haul saw the Wesleyites being bowled out for 129 to which the Trinitians made a formidable 268 in just 50 overs. Wesley in their second essay was again troubled by spinner Janishka who following his figures of 5 for 31 put in another fine bowling performance taking 5 for 37 to restrict Wesley to a score of 139 to end with a match bag of 10 for 68.
In the other outright wins Richmond were steered by A.K. Tyrone and Pabasara Waduge in their eight wicket win over Isipathana. The match on day one saw Tyrone and Pabasara cracking half tons to help their side make a modest score of 218.
The second day saw Tyrone with his right arm spin taking four wickets to send Isipathana reeling to a score of 100 and Tyrone again had the Isipathanians in trouble with a five wicket haul to bowl them out for 139 and end with a match bag of 9 for 59.St. Joseph’s eight win over St. Sebastian’s was due to skipper Vidusha Jayasinghe’s knock of 107. His knock enabled his side to make an imposing 261 and the Josephians bowlers continued the good work as they had the Sebs struggling on 113 for 8.
Sebs did not last long on day two as they were able to add only a further 17 runs. Sebs being made to follow on were unable to make much headway as the Josephian bowlers Priyamal Perera, Supeshala Jayatileke and Shivane Alirajah had them under control.
Sebs though being able to erase the deficit and save themselves from an innings defeat, the target of just 29 runs was insufficient for them to prevent the Josephians from coasting to their second win.
Ananda’s hero in their nine wicket win against Lumbini MV was also their skipper Pasindu Madushan. The right arm spinner ended with a match bag of 12 for 93.
The Anandians did not have any significance contribution in the batting department and it the sole effort of Pasindu who took 4 for 43 in the first and 8 for 50 in the second innings of Lumbini MV which paved the way for their victory.
It was another bowler who paved the way for his side’s victory when Charith Sudharka with a match bag of 10 for 39 steered his side Sri Devananda MV Ambalangoda to a nine wicket win over Rahula College Matara.
Charith’s impressive figures of 7 for 22 in Rahula’s second innings enabled them to make a great comeback after having conceded a first inning to their opponents.
An impressive match figure of 9 for 77 by Mauwan Liyanage was the highlight the 22 runs win recorded by Siri Piyaratana MMV Padukka against Bandaranayake MV Gampaha.
It was a well contested game with both the sides making identical scores of 187 in the first inning. But a formidable 268 by Siri Piyaratana MMV was too much for the Gampaha boys.
S. de S. Jayasinghe MMV Dehiwala coasted to their sixth outright win of the season when they recorded a seven wicket win over St. John’s Nugegoda. The win was initiated by Lahiru Supun who cracked an imposing 118. Apart from that there were no other significant contributions. Nevertheless the week ending also saw some fine individual performances in batting and bowling departments in the drawn games concluded over the weekend. |
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