Nalanda retain Elephant Lemonade Cup

BY CHRIS Dhambarage

NALANDA College retained the Elephant Lemonade Cup for the second successive year when they outplayed Kalutara MV by four wickets in the Old Wesleyites Sports Club organised inter-school six-a-side cricket tournament final played at Campbell Park yesterday.

The Nalandians dismissed their opponents for just 23 runs from 3.2 overs and then reached their target quite easily scoring 26 for 1 from 1.3 overs. The final surprisingly turned out to be a one sided contest with Kalutara MV failing to produce the same form which they displayed during the earlier matches.

They lost two wickets in the very first over and they never recovered from there onwards with the entire match lasting less then five overs. This was also the eighth occasion that Nalanda had won the Elephant Lemonade Cup sixes title.

Kalutara MV created two major upsets on their way to the final while defeating S. Thomas' College Mount Lavinia in the quarter-finals and St. Benedict's College in the semi-final.

In fact their total of 95 for 4 which they made against the Benedictines was the highest team score in the entire tournament overcoming their own record of 83 for 4 against Wesley College.

The star player for Kalutara MV was Romesh Wickremasinghe who went on to win the special award for the best all rounder of the tournament.

They beat St. Benedict's College by a massive 48 runs which was also the biggest victory margin by the number of runs in this tournament. In the quarterfinals Kalutara MV hit up 73 for 2 and then restricted S. Thomas' College to 50 for 1.

The Nalandians overcame their toughest hurdle probably in the quarterfinals where they defeated last year's runners up St. Joseph's College by three wickets. St. Joseph's College could manage only 55 for 3 with skipper Angelo Mathew contributing 39 runs. In reply Nalanda raced to their target scoring 56 for 2 in 3.5 overs with Gihan Rupasinghe making 28 runs.

The Nalandians again went through some anxious moments in the semifinal against De Mazenod College Kandana. They were up against it with De Mazenod College scoring at a tremendous rate mainly due to the efforts of Nilushan Nonis who was later named as the best batsman of the tournament.

But Nalanda managed to overtake that score in the last over with opener Tarindu Attanayake scoring 22 runs.

De Mazenod College Kandana reached the semifinals with a good win over Holy Cross College Kalutara. De Mazenod College scored 52 for 1 in 3.1 overs with Nilushan Nonis stroking an unbeaten 48 after they had restricted Holy Cross College to 51 for 3. St. Benedict's College made it to the semifinals with a good win over Thurstan College where they hammered 59 for no loss in 4.1 overs having restricted their opponents to 58 for 4.

The most valuable player of the award went to Ashan Priyanjana of Nalanda College and the man of the final was Tharindu Attanayake also from Nalanda.

The results:

(Quarterfinals): St. Joseph's 55 for 3 lost to Nalanda 56 for 2, Thurstan 58 for 4 lost to St. Benedict's 59 for no loss, Holy Cross 51 for 3 lost to De Mazenod 52 for 1, Kalutara MV 73 for 2 beat S. Thomas' 50 for 1.

(Semifinals): De Mazenod 65 for 4 lost to Nalanda 66 for 3, Kalutara MV 95 for 4 beat St. Benedict's 47 for 3. (Final): Kalutara MV: 23 for 5 lost to Nalanda 26 for 1.