|
|
 |
 |
 |
| Tuesday, 22 February 2005 |
 |
|
 |
Sports | |
| News Business Features Editorial Security Politics World Letters Sports Obituaries
|
School cricket review Joes and Peterites in impressive victories by Chris Dhambarage The traditional rivals St. Joseph's College and St. Peter's College warmed up for the forthcoming Battle of the Saints Big Match while recording impressive victories in their inter school cricket tournament matches worked off during the weekend. The Josephians powered their way to a seven wicket victory over St. Sebastian's College at Moratuwa while the Peterites annihilated S. Thomas' College Mount Lavinia by the same margin in their match at Bambalapitiya. Even then the Josephian success was quite a significant effort considering the fact that the last time they defeated the Sebastianites was way back in 1971. They also improved on their overall record in the series while notching up their seventh win from 37 matches and having lost only on two occasions. St. Joseph's also emerged as one of the most successful teams in the history of school cricket recording their eighth win in the current season. This was easily their best performance for the past fifty years while eclipsing the previous record of seven wins which they achieved in 1997 under the captaincy of Trevin Mathews. In addition they also won six matches in 1990 under the leadership of Orril de Mel. This years team is ably led by wicket keeper batsman and fourth year coloursman Hashan Goonethileke and coached by Harsha de Silva who also represented St. Joseph's College during the 1990/91 season as an opening bowler. The main architect of their record eighth win this year was paceman Angelo Mathews who picked up a six wicket haul in the second innings. Despite performing away from home he exploited the conditions to good affect and dismissed the Sebastianites for the second time in the match. In the first innings it was the off spinner Rajeeva Werasinghe who caused the damage with a five wicket haul. The Joes then consolidated their position by building up a first innings lead of 85 runs thanks to useful contributions from Roshane Silva and Ranesh Perera. St. Peter's v S. Thomas' The Peterites meanwhile cruised to an easy seven wicket win over S. Thomas' College Mount Lavinia in their annual inter school fixture played at Bambalapitiya last week. The Peterites will be more than pleased with their performances having failed to make an impact in the previous few outings. This win was certainly a good morale booster for them with the Big Match against St. Joseph's College around the corner. The Peterites despite having the services of a number of senior players have failed to produce the results which they were expecting at the beginning of the season. But at last they have now struck form at the correct time while proving their all round capabilities in this important encounter. The Thomians certainly possess a very strong batting line up this season but this time they collapsed to 79 runs their lowest total in the current season. The trio of Hans Fernando, Umhar Samsudeen and Shanaka Wickremasekera turned out to be a fearsome combination as they made life difficult for the Thomians through some penetrative bowling. The most significant contribution with the bat of course came from the dashing Dasun Randhika who missed out another century by just four runs. S. Thomas' v Trinity S. Thomas' College however came out with an improved performance in their next outing taking major honours in their annual encounter against Trinity College Kandy and played at Mount Lavinia during the weekend. The clash against Trinity College was a challenge for the Thomians because the Kandy school were fresh after recording their record sixth outright win in the current inter school season. But the Thomians rose to the occasion and certainly had the final laugh taking a first innings lead and also scoring well over two hundred runs in both innings. They will be quite satisfied with the batting where Ashan Peiris went on to score a splendid one hundred in the second innings. In addition Sri Lanka Youth cap Kaushal Silva also took the opportunity for some good batting practice completing an unbeaten half century and will go into the next match just two runs short of reaching the magical one thousand run mark for the current inter school season. The Trinitians managed to get closer to the Thomian first innings total thanks to half centuries from Ratnayake and skipper Munaweera. Royal v Prince of Wales Prince of Wales College delivered a tremendous blow as they brought down Royal College by six wickets in their annual inter school match played at Moratuwa during the weekend. Even then the final result did not come as a surprise because Royal are going through a pretty ordinary season with several newcomers in their ranks. But for the Cambrians this was quite an achievement considering the fact that this was only their seventh victory in the series against Royal from 77 outings with the inaugural match played way back in 1896. Not only that this was the second time in successive outings that Prince of Wales had defeated Royal having triumphed at Reid Avenue last year too. The Cambrians proved too strong for the Royal outfit who struggled with the bat in both innings. However Royal did make a good effort to save the game while producing a determined batting performance in the second innings. But the damage was probably done in the first innings when they collapsed to just 156 runs against the spin of Isuru Gunasena. In addition the pressure was really mounting on Royal as they were chasing a massive Cambrian first innings total of 321 for 6. The home team made certain that they take the initiative from the beginning with the entire top order striking form. Among them Romesh Thirimanne was unfortunately dismissed just one run short of his century. Ananda v Dharmaraja Ananda College regained the P. W. Perera trophy but not before they had gone through some anxious moments in their inter school cricket tournament match against Dharmaraja College Kandy played at Ananda Mawatha. The Anandians were reduced to 46 for 8 in their second innings having collapsed to 25 for 7 at one stage after they were set a victory target of 153 runs from 22 overs. But they made a complete mess out of it losing wickets at regular intervals against the pace of Dharmaraja captain Chamara Kapugedera. Earlier Ananda managed to take only a slender first innings lead of seven runs despite Mahela Uadwatte scoring his fifth century in the current inter school season. Udawatte also reached a personal milestone becoming the first schoolboy to complete one thousand runs for the season. The Rajans also produced a centurion in the first innings in the form of Chatura Bandara who hammered a superb 112 and then followed up with a half century in the second innings. St. Sebastian's v Wesley St. Sebastian's College had to be satisfied with a draw in their inter school cricket tournament match against Wesley College played at Campbell Park during the weekend. The Sebastianites will be quite disappointed with the final outcome as they completely dominated the game and also hit up 278 in the first innings. But they failed to add the finishing touches when it really mattered with the Wesleyites putting up a stubborn batting performance in the second innings. In the first innings of course they were rescued by Liyanage who hit a top score of 78 while batting under tremendous pressure. The Sebastianites then easily overtook their opponents total and put themselves in a winning position while taking a first innings lead of 103 runs. Prince of Wales v Ananda Prince of Wales College put up a tremendous batting performance to hit up 307 for 9 and force a draw to their inter school cricket tournament match against Ananda College which ended in a high scoring draw at Moratuwa last week. The Cambrians were up against it after Ananda had piled up 301 in their first innings mainly through a century from their consistent run getter Mahela Udawatte. But Prince of Wales proved that they have an equally good batting line up with a strong reply which no doubt surprised their opponents. Mahinda v Royal Mahinda College Galle put up a pleasing performance to take a first innings lead of 67 runs over Royal College in their annual inter school cricket tournament match which ended in a draw at Reid Avenue last week. Leg spinner Charith Keerthisinghe had a superb game for Mahinda capturing a five wicket haul and also hitting a top score of 42 in their first innings. His effort with the ball helped them dismiss Royal for just 146 runs in their first innings. Royal of course made amends with an improved batting display in the second innings but the Mahindians took the honours for their spirited performance on the field. |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security
Produced by Lake House |
