Nalanda the defending champions in the Coca Cola Limited Overs inter-schools tournament will meet Thurstan, Ananda will take on St. Joseph's, Prince of Wales will play against St. Sebastian's and S. Thomas' Mount Lavinia will meet the winners of the St. John's Panadura- Raddoluwa MV clash in the quarter-finals fixed for April 2 in four venues in Colombo.
Nalanda will meet Thurstan at the P. Sara Stadium, S. Thomas' will battle the winners of the St. John's Panadura-Raddoluwa MV clash on April 1 at the Moors grounds at Braybrooke Place, Prince of Wales will clash with St. Sebastian's at the NCC grounds at Maitland Place and Ananda will encounter St. Joseph's at the CCC grounds at Maitland Crescent.
In the run up to the quarter-finals, Nalanda beat St. Benedict's by 7 wickets, Thurstan beat Kalutara MV by 97 runs, St. Joseph's beat Trinity by 7 wickets, S. Thomas' beat Isipatana by 6 wickets, Ananda beat St. Peter's by 31 runs and St. Sebastian's beat Aluthgama MV by 73 runs.
At Moratuwa - St. Sebastian's beat Aluthgama MV by 73 runs.
St. Sebastian's 195 all out in 35.2 overs. (Nimesh Perera 63, Nalin Wijesinghe 56, Mario Recs 19, G.N. Silva 4/24, K. Silva 2/18).
Aluthgama MV 122 all out in 35.3 overs. (E. de Silva 11, T.S. Silva 17, P.S. Fernando 13, L.C.P. Silva 26, L.P. Fernando 17, Suranga Silva 3/28, Nimesh Perera 3/15).
At Darley Road - St Joseph's beat Trinity by 7 wickets.
Trinity 159 all out in 41 overs. (Indika Gunawardena 18, Vipula Wijesiri 23, Kumar Sangakkara 56, Janaka Seneviratne 21, Trewin Matthews 2/13, Aminda de Mel 4/22).
St. Joseph's 160 for 3 in 35 overs. (Graham Ferdinandesz 28, Shalinka de Silva 60 n.o., Asela Pathirana 43, Trewin Matthews 11 n.o., Narendra Ekanayake 2/31).
At Ananda Mawatha Ananda beat St. Peter's by 31 runs.
Ananda 205 for 8 in 41 overs. (Tilan Samaraweera 53, Aviskha Gunawardena 71, Bathiya Perera 28, Sonal Anthony 3/30).
St. Peter's 175 all out in 40.3 overs. (Nandika Herath 15, Damith Maiarachchi 10, Manura Neomal 66, L. Moses 26, Renuka Nonis 11, Tilan Samaraweera 4/14).
At Kalutara Thurstan beat Kalutara MV by 97 runs
Thurstan 265 all out in 45 overs. (Sumedha Bandaratilleka 38, Nalaka de Silva 68, Sudara Jayawardena 44, Chamara Liyanage 41, N.M. Tillakaratne 2/53, D. Tillakaratne 3/35, N. Hettiarachchi 3/39).
Kalutara MV 168 all out in 38.2 overs. (Kelum Sanjaya 57, Danuska Kumara 3/31, Chamara Liyanage 2/33).
At Campbell Place - Nalanda beat St. Benedict's by 7 wickets.
St. Benedict's 137 for 8 in 45 overs. (Pradeep Hewage 19, Ajantha Weerapuli 18, Thanura Gunatilleka 30, Rilley Tissera 11, Mahela Jayawardena 2/21, Tharanga Dhammika 2/39, Shanuka Dissanayake 2/24).
Nalanda 138 for 3 in 30.2 overs. (Mahela Jayawardena 27, Ranesh Handunetti 65 n.o., Shanuka Dissanayake 29 n.o., Ranishka Nillangaratne 2/28).
At the NCC grounds Maitland Place - S. Thomas' beat Isipatana by 6 wickets.
Isipatana 104 all out, S. Thomas' 104 for 4.
Vidyartha helped by a fifth wicket partnership of 131 runs between T. Fernando (86) and C. Kahandawarachci (51) were able to score 219 for 7 declared in their 38th match against St. Sylvester's at the Asgiriya Stadium on Friday.
In reply St. Sylvester's were 23 for 2 at the close.
Fernando's 86 runs had ten fours, while Kahandawarachchi's innings of 51 included 8 fours.
Vidyartha 219 for 7 declared. (D.K. Ranaweera 12, T. Fernando 86, S.S.K. Hewavitharana 18, C. Kahandawarachchi 51, S. Kumara 11, R. Dissanayake 4/54, A. Perera 2/46).
St. Sylvester's 23 for 2 at the close.
The dynamic and stylish Sumangala batsman, Roshan Wimalasena, has joined the select band of school cricketers who topped 1000 runs in the 1995-96 school cricket season.
He achieved this in their big match with Moratu Vidyalaya played at Panadura last week-end. When he went out to bat he was just four runs short of the thousand mark and in the very first over he faced Roshan achieved this feat. Scoring a record breaking 150 in the first innings and 78 in the second he has now aggregated 1224 runs in 18 innings.
This includes in addition to 150 runs in the Big Match with Moratu Vidyalaya,110 against Dharmasoka Vidyalaya,100 not out with Kalutara Vidyalaya and 100 against President's College, with 86 against Thurstan College and five more fifties.
Roshan who is a medium pace change bowler has taken 22 wickets for his college team this season with 6 for 58 against Dharmasoka as his best bowling feat.
18 year old Roshan Wimalasena is a regular player for Panadura Sport Club in the Saravanamuttu Tournament.
Brothers Naveen and Arun Karunaratne of Wycherley International School excelled at the Novices Swimming and Diving championships held at the Royal College pool.
Naveen won three events, the 133 metres individual medley and 33 metres back and dolphin stroke events, in the under 13 age group. He also became the under 12 champion in the Inter - National Schools Swimming Championships at the Sugathadasa Stadium.
His brother Arun won the 100 metres free style event for boys under 14 and was placed second in the 50 metres back and 50 metres free style events at the Inter-International Schools Swimming Championships.
Arun and Naveen are coached by Shirley Abeysena.
Sri Lankan cricket fans in Canada went on jubilant victory parade downtown Toronto streets after skipper Arjuna Ranatunga hit the winning run to clinch the World Cup. A large convoy of cars carrying Sri Lankan flags went round the town chanting "Sri Lanka World Champs " to the amazement of the Canadian public.
The hundred and fifty thousand Sri Lankans living in Ontario who supported their homeland either watched the match live on TV or heard commentaries on the Tamil radio service in Canada. The live telecast commenced at 4.00a.m. and several thousands of Sri Lankans, Indians, Pakistanis and West Indians living in Toronto paid one thousand five hundred rupees to watch the cricket match at home on pay per view. It was also shown in several restaurants and bars on wide screens.
The newspapers in Toronto gave wide coverage of the World Cup tournament. The Toronto Star the newspaper with the largest circulation in Canada published a half page article in the front page of the sport sections hailing Sri Lanka's victory. It also had a large colour photograph of Aravinda de Silva. The Toronto Sun under the headline 'Sri Lanka rules pitch' showed Arjuna Ranatunga carrying the World Cup Cricket Trophy. Then on March 19th in the Toronto Star, a rare tribute was made to Sri Lankan cricket when its editorial under the headline "New Kings of Cricket." It praised Sri Lanka's success in the World Cup. It stated that the World Cricket tournament was the biggest extravaganza behind the Olympics and Soccer's World Cup. The epitome of modern day cricket is the quadrennial World Cup. "The team from the war-torn small island nation of Sri Lanka beat such gaints as England and India before demolishing the Aussies in the final" the editorial added. "Tamil Tiger guns fell silent for the entire four weeks even though there was only one Tamil in the Sri Lanka team dominated by the majority Sinhalese. The fans, including the guerrillas were busy bowing to the gods of cricket" the Canadian paper stated.
Former St. John's cricket captain and Thomian cricketer Jimmy Rajaratnam who lives in North York said "it was a great achievement, we were dazzled by the elegance of Aravinda's batting and overwhelmed by the skills and efficiency of Arjuna and his team." Eric de Mel a Scarborough resident who played cricket in Zambia said "I knew after watching the Sharjah Cup when Duleep Mendis said we are going for the big one there was a possibility of winning the World Cup. But I am still shocked and find it hard to grasp that we are World Champs. My Canadian friends are talking of the big achievement." Incidentally Canada took part in the World Cup Tournament in 1979.
Courageously, confidently and cheerfully, the sons of Sri Lanka led her team
On to a glorious beginning.
Never discouraged when the Australians and West Indies let them down unfairly,
Guiding and encouraging each other was your priority.
Ranatunga has really proved his super captaincy,
Aravinda and Jayasuriya batted and bowled with great dignity,
Together with the others you did your very best - Coz,
Up-most in your minds were "Lets' Beat the Rest"!
Lara of the West Indies, supposed to be the World's best player
Australia has Shane Warne - another good bowler,
Tendulkar is India's 'living god' - but,
Ironically, even the soothsayers shamed them all!
Outrageous were they not, when the Sri Lankans did their country proud,
Not turning back yet determined to show the world,
Sri Lankan cricketers are the best from the rest - and this will be written in letters of gold!!
Antonette de Cruze,
Texlinen (Pvt) Ltd.,
Biyagama.
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