U-19 Cricket: St. Joseph’s beat Royal to claim Schools L/O title

An enterprising knock of 146 off 133 deliveries from Shevon Daniel spearheaded St. Joseph’s College to a crushing 97-run win over Royal College and lift the Under-19 Division I Limited Over Championship at the NCC grounds on Saturday (1).

Chasing a challenging total of 288 for victory, Royal were bundled out for 190 runs ably guided by impressive bowling effort by Josephians Lahiru Amarasekera, Deshan Seneviratne and Dunith Wellalage. 

Batting first, St. Joseph's put on a match-winning total of 287-5 on the back of Daniel's unbeaten 146, which included six boundaries and nine towering sixes.

After openers Sadeesh Jayawardena and Sheran Fonseka put on 50 runs, Daniel and Mithira Thenura added 136 runs for the third wicket, laying a solid foundation for Joes to construct a huge total. 

He then went on to add 62 runs for the fourth wicket with skipper Dunith Wellalage.

Royal, in pursuit of a massive target of 288 runs, put themselves in deep trouble as they lost the first three wickets with the score on just nine runs on the scoreboard in the fourth over. 

Sineth Lakwan and skipper Ahan Wickramasinghe tried to put the breaks on a further collapse with the pair putting on 71 runs for the fourth wicket but Joes hit back taking the wicket of Sineth.

Skipper Wickramasinghe was sent back as the fifth victim when Royal's total was at 93. 

Kavinda Pathiratna hit 59 for Royal.

St. Joseph's College 287 for 5 wickets (50) (Sheran Fonseka 38, Mithira Thenura 34, Dunith Wellalage 30, Sadeesh Jayawardena 25, Shevon Daniel 146n.o.)

Royal College 190 all out (40.2) (Kavinda Pathiratna 59, Sineth Lakwan 40, Ahan Wickramasinghe 37, Prashan Kalhara 19: Lahiru Amarasekera 4/45, Deshan Seneviratne 2/12, Dunith Wellalage 2/50)