Dialog-ST 2018: The contest has gathered a hectic pace

While S. Thomas' College skipper and leg-spinner Dellon Peiris continues his stronghold in the All-Island Schools category of the Dialog 4G-the Sunday Times Most Popular Schoolboy / Schoolgirl Cricketer of the Year 2018, Vihan Gunasekara of D.S. Senanayake College is showing rapid progress as the contest completes the 23rd week. 

Vihan indicated that he is on a mission two weeks ago and since then he has accelerated at great speed to come within sights of beating second placed Sachin Silva of St. Peter's College. 

Last week the deficit between Sachin and Vihan was 5117, and by this week it has come down to 1017, showing that by next week more surprises could be expected. 

Meanwhile Dellon continues to lead the list by taking his tally to 30068, after adding 1368 combined votes, while maintaining a healthy lead of 11271 from ahead of Sachin. 

Sachin on the other hand makes his usual journey by adding 921 combined votes to reach 18797. 

The gap between Dellon and Vihan reads as 12288 and with three more counts remaining, the race promises to be very exciting. The rest of the lineup in the category remains unchanged. 

Denuwan Perera of Carey College continues to lead the Emerging Schools category with a tally of 16961, with the addition of 1217 votes. 

But he seems to be in a bit of a trouble with the progress of Kenula Gunaratne of St. Aloysius College, Ratnapura. 

Kenula has been making a gradual improvement during the past couple of weeks with his progress and by the end of this weekend he closes in to Denuwan by a gap of 1829 votes. 

Last week the deficit was 3147. 

Sonara Karunathunga and Thimira Malshan, both of Ananda Sasthralaya are at third and fourth positions respectively. 

Kavindu Shilpage of Siri Piyarathana Padukka emerges with a good collection of combined votes to push away Heshan Madushanka of Piliyandala Central to claim the fifth spot this week. 

Harshitha of Anula Vidyalaya, continues to lead the Girls' Schools category and she continues to impress with a handsome addition of 3670 combined votes, which would easily secure her stronghold. 

Harshitha's tally reaches 17889 and she stands 9788 votes ahead of Pabasara Ranabahu of Rathnavali Girls' School Gampaha. Pabasara takes her tally to 8101. 

Kaveesha Dilhani of Devapathiraja MV, Rathgama and Ruwini Nandasena of St. Joseph's Girls' School are the other two contenders in the list. 

On coupons and online votes 

Coupons will be published in the two English dailies, the Daily Mirror and DailyFT, and the two Sinhala dailies, Daily Lankadeepa and Ada and Sinhala Weekend, Deshaya with the deadline set in three more weekends. 

Readers could vote for their favourite schoolboy or schoolgirl cricketer and take them to the winning post during this period. 

Dialog Axiata's online voting system through their official Online Portal to vote for the Most Popular Cricketer (www.dialog.lk/cricket). Online voting will be open until April 5. 

Both coupon votes and online votes will be counted on a weekly basis and the official results published from every Sunday in the five newspapers and its websites. 

The deadline for COUPONS and ONLINE VOTES will be every Thursday Noon. 

Online Votes received after the weekly cutoff time will be counted for the next week, while for Coupons, ONLY those numbered for the particular week will be taken into count. 

This week's digital voting count was monitored and approved by auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers. 

Results: Week 23 

All-Island Schools 

Dellon Peiris (S. Thomas' College) 30068 

Sachin Silva (St. Peter's College) 18797 

Vihan Gunasekara (D.S. Senanayake College) 17780 

Asel Sigera (Ananda College) 3139 

Kavin Peiris (Lumbini College) 1277 

Dulaj Bandara (Dharmaraja College) 1265 

Kalana Perera (S. Thomas' College) 805 

Mahesh Theekshana (St. Benedict's College) 676 

Dinidu Wijewardene (Nalanda College) 547 

Ravindu Fernando (Maris Stella College) 515 

Kalana Wijesiri (Ananda College) 137 

Emerging Schools 

Denuwan Perera (Carey College) 16961 

Kenula Gunaratne (St. Aloysius Ratnapura) 15133 

Sonara Karunathunga (Ananda Sasthralaya) 5752 

Thimira Malshan (Ananda Sasthralaya) 2730 

Kavindu Shilpage (Siri Piyarathana Padukka) 2637 

Heshan Madushanka (Piliyandala Central) 2165 

Saliya Jeewantha (Eheliyagoda Central) 454 

Pulitha Yasas (Sri Sumangala Panadura) 255 

Pathum Hasaranga (Vidyaloka Galle) 255 

Girls' School 

Harshitha Samarawickrama (Anula Vidyalaya) 17889 

Pabasara Ranabahu (Rathnavali GS, Gampaha) 8101 

Kaveesha Dilhari (Devapathiraja, Rathgama) 62 

Ruwini Nandasena (St. Joseph's Girls School) 28 

Readers prizes go to: 1. S.A. Saryanantha, 9 Hekitta Lane, Wattala, 2. Upul Darshana, 47/5, Konawatta, Bemmulla, 3. Chintha Fernando, 13, Modarawila Road, Panadura, 4. Hansani Ranaweera, 55/D/1, Uruwal Mawatha, Kirillawala, Kadawatha.