Archives

by Chris Dhambarage

St. Peter's College produced their best batting display for the season as they took major honours in their Elephant Lemonade Cup inter school cricket tournament match worked off at Mount Lavinia during the weekend.

The Peterites confirmed their superiority in this department by compiling over three hundred runs and took first innings points in this important fixture. They have been somewhat outplayed in their last couple of outings and the team have come under pressure on a number of occasions.

But this time they got their act together well and launched a terrific assault on the Thomian attack scoring 326 for 9 from 86 overs. The bulk of the runs came from the bat of left hander Gihan de Silva who smashed an enterprising 164 with nineteen fours and three sixes. He was in absolute control of the situation and held the Peterite batting together with great determination and concentration.

However the Thomians batted reasonably well to avert the follow on mark and did not mind conceding first innings points to their opponents. They rallied around through the individual brilliance of Pravin Peiris and Kaushal Silva with both completing half centuries under trying circumstances. Their main task was to avoid the follow on mark and they did it successfully while frustrating the Peterite bowling to a certain extent.

Altogether this game turned out to be a high scoring one with over seven hundred runs been scored in the two days. Even then the Peterites failed to capitalise on their excellent batting performance and had to be satisfied with only first innings points. They had a good chance of forcing an outright victory after having piled up a massive first innings total on the opening day.

Prince of Wales College continued with their excellent run of success scoring a first innings win over Wesley College at Moratuwa. However the Wesleyites were a confident lot having outplayed Kingswood College Kandy in their previous encounter played at Peradeniya. The Wesleyites despite the absence of star batsman F. Maharoof did well to reach a decent first innings total of 193 runs.

The Cambrians responded quite positively and went about their task while collecting runs at a steady pace. They suffered an early set back during their run chase losing the important wicket of Amila Sandaruwan cheaply. But Shan Perumpulli, Sahan Wijeratne, B. Ramanayake and B. Dananjaya all contributed towards their score which helped them overtake their opponents total quite convincingly.

Meanwhile the key fixture between arch rivals Royal and Ananda ended in a no decision with the two teams sharing the honours. Royal recovered from an early setback to score 230 for 7 with skipper Ganganath Ratnayake stroking a near century. The consistent run getter unfortunately fell short by just three runs from the three figure mark but still pulled his side out of trouble with a splendid batting performance.

This game could have turned out to be a close one if not for the bad weather which spoiled nearly two sessions of play on the opening day. The Anandians did make a solid reply reaching 110 for 3 in their first innings. Another important fixture between Wesley and S. Thomas' College Mount Lavinia played for the Sathasivam trophy was also badly affected due to heavy rain and only 33 overs were possible during the entire match.

St. Anthony's College Katugastota put up a stunning performance to take first innings points over the more fancied Nalanda team in their match played in Kandy. The Antonians had the satisfaction of enforcing the follow on mark after bundling out the visitors for just over one hundred runs. All rounder Tyronne de Silva had a superb game claiming three wickets following his contribution of 89 runs in the first innings.

The Antonians really surprised their opponents by piling up a formidable first innings total of 261 runs. The strong Nalanda batting line up then collapsed under pressure and faced the embarrassment of being asked to follow on for the first time in the current season. This was no doubt a major setback for the Nalandians having scored over three hundred runs in their previous outing against Maliyadeva College Kurunegala.

St. Sebastian's College overcame the bad weather and defeated Thurstan College on the first innings in their encounter played at the De Soysa Stadium, Moratuwa. The Sebastianites scored a formidable 255 for 8 in their first innings and pressurised their opponents through some penetrative bowling. Malinga Fernando hit a top score of 65 and received good support from S. Fernando, N. Silva and D. Perera.

The Sebastianites did not produce anything extra ordinary on the field but they stuck to a game plan and picked up wickets at regular intervals. The Thurstanites were up against it from the beginning and eventually collapsed for 128 with a top score of 47 coming from O. Maharachchi.

Isipatana came out probably with their best performance for the season to beat Maliyadeva College Kurunegala on the first innings in their match played at the Welagedera Stadium. They made good use of the ideal batting conditions and compiled over two hundred and fifty runs in their first innings with Rohan de Silva and C. Prasad completing half centuries.

But their actual matchwinner was off spinner Saranga Perera who claimed a six wicket haul with the back up support coming from Oshadie Navaragodagedera. The pair combined quite effectively through some accurate bowling and caused most of the damage to dismiss the opposition for under two hundred runs.

Vidyartha College and Joseph Vaz College Wennappuwa figured in a no decision in their encounter played at Peradeniya. Even then Vidyartha would be somewhat disappointed that they could not pull off this game having piled up a formidable first innings total of 261 runs. Their innings was boosted by three half centuries from D. Wekadapola, Harsha Nanayakkara and M. M. Nilam.

Joseph Vaz College then collapsed to 105 for 4 against some hostile bowling by Sujith Perera who captured all four wickets in the innings before rain washed out the final session of play.

News | Business | Features | Editorial | Security
Politics | World | Letters | Sports | Obituaries |

Produced by Lake House
Copyright 2001 The Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Ltd.
Comments and suggestions to :Web Manager