School Cricket Review

Sachith and Ravi show brilliance

Chris Dhambarage

CRICKET: Sri Lanka Youth cap and Trinity College captain Sachith Pathirana's brilliant all round performance and Sylvestrian Ravi Karunaratne's fifty wicket haul for the current season marked another weekend of inter school cricket matches which were interrupted by bad weather once again.

Even then there was time for Sachith Pathirana to make his presence felt in their previous outing against the home town rivals Kingswood College worked off at the Asgiriya Stadium in Kandy. Pathirana stole the limelight with a magnificent 97 and later picked up three wickets as Trinity College cruised to an easy first innings victory.

Pathirana's performance with the bat was even more significant considering the fact that he contributed more than half of their teams total after they had being struggling at 19 for 3 and again at 60 for 5. He then got his act together well with the ball to claim three important wickets as Kingswood College crashed to just 91 runs in their first innings.

St. Sylvester's v Kegalu MV

The concluded weekend was also a memorable one for Sylvestrian Ravi Karunaratne who became the first schoolboy cricketer to complete fifty wickets in the current season. He achieved this feat during their clash against Kegalu MV which ended in a draw at the Police grounds in Kandy.

Karunaratne continued with his outstanding performances this year by claiming three wickets in the first innings and added a couple of more wickets to his tally in the second innings to complete a memorable outing.

As a result the Sylvestrians dominated the entire proceedings with the bad weather depriving of them from registering a certain victory. They were just 94 runs away from pulling off the game when heavy rain washed out the last two sessions of play after they had experienced several interruptions on the opening day too.

In addition to Karunaratne's record breaking effort there was another splendid bowling display from Chanaka Ranaweera who returned the best figures with a six wicket haul. His contribution was quite a significant one as Kegalu MV were shot out for a mere 83 runs in their first innings. They struggled for runs in the second innings too and were facing a certain defeat before the bad weather came into their rescue.

S. Thomas' v Dharmasoka MV

S. Thomas' College had a satisfying outing as they grabbed major honours in their rain hit inter school cricket tournament match against Dharmasoka College Ambalangoda and worked off at Mount Lavinia last week.

Despite the bad weather experienced on both days the Thomians were able to get the maximum from the limited number of overs available which was really encouraging. They were more keen to get a result from this outing and their sporting declaration in the second innings almost earned them the desired outcome.

Another significant fact for the Thomians was that two of their promising players Wijesh Wijesinghe and Vishwa Weerawardena both completed half centuries in their first innings. Both batted well under gloomy conditions which were more conducive for seam bowling.

The Thomians also defended their modest total of 170 through a superlative effort on the field with Milan Fernando taking the bowling honours.

His five wicket haul helped S. Thomas' College to take a good first innings lead of 41 runs which gave them a chance from where they could force a result.

Thurstan v Dharmapala MV

Thurstan College also had to be content with a draw in their rain hit inter school cricket tournament match against Dharmapala MV Pannipitiya and worked off at Bauddhaloka Mawatha.

In fact the Thurstanites had the satisfaction of enforcing the follow on after they had built up a good first innings lead of more than one hundred runs. Their positive approach towards the game was quite evident as they closed their innings at 231 for 5. Buddhi Samarawickrema and Umesh Karunaratne took the batting honours with both completing superb half centuries.

Even then Dharmapala's match saviour was Praneeth Hewage who hit a fighting unbeaten half century to pull his side from a hopeless situation.

He contributed more than half of their teams second innings total and more importantly he was still batting when bad light eventually halted the game.