Schools Cricket Review:

Underdogs perform well

Chris Dhambarage

CRICKET: The traditional rivals Royal College and S. Thomas' College Mount Lavinia came out with an improved performance as they forced a draw to their inter-school annual fixtures against two heavyweights in the current season St. Joseph's College and St. Peter's College respectively.

The Thomians going in as complete underdogs surprised the Josephians with a pleasing effort at Darley Road while Royal College too managed to hold the high riding Peterites with a gallant performance at Bambalapitiya last week.

The Thomians would not mind surrendering the Gilmour Jayasuriya memorial trophy to their opponents but they will be more than happy the manner in which the team performed especially with the Big Match around the corner. This was easily one of their best performances for the current season with some of their key batsmen making runs against a strong bowling attack.

The more experienced Ashan Peiris led from the front as the Thomians took the initiative by posting a first innings total of exactly two hundred and fifty runs. They even came closer of enforcing the follow on after they had picked up the first five Josephian wickets for less than one hundred runs.

This was certainly a great morale booster for the Thomians who then had the luxury of setting their opponents a victory target in their fourth innings following another superb knock from Ashan Peiris. The target may have been somewhat beyond their opponents reach but the significant fact is that the Thomians had never been in a position of this nature for the entire season.

The Josephians managed to avert the follow on and eventually put up a decent score on the board thanks to the fighting knocks from Nirmal Rajapaksa and Sameera Weerasinghe. The latter of course starred with the ball too and took a six wicket haul in the Thomian second innings.

Royal v St. Peter's

Meanwhile Royal College shared the honours with St. Peter's College in their annual encounter worked off at Bambalapitiya last week. But for Royal this was another satisfying performance because they had the opportunity of dictating terms on their opponents at least for a brief period.

Royal have been at the receiving end in most of their outings but probably for the first time this season they were in a position from where they could have pressurised their opponents.

The fact that St. Peter's College got away from the trouble situation is something different but Royal can look back with great satisfaction at their performances with both bat and ball.

Royal were up against a team that had recorded five outright victories this season but despite the heavy odds against them they were able to push the Peterites to the maximum with just one player preventing them from taking the major honours.

Anuk Silva turned out to be the main concern for Royal as he steered St. Peter's College towards safety with a sparkling half century.

Anuk Silva made batting look much easier with a 44 ball knock of 83 which helped the Peterites avert further embarrassment as they managed to take a first innings lead of just two runs.

Royal's initial hard work of course was done by their top order batsmen with Banuka Rajapaksa making a splendid century. His contribution was more than half of the team's final total and considering Royal's ordinary performances in the earlier matches this was a fantastic effort indeed.

There was more time for Charith Fernando to display his batting prowess as he hit a fighting half century in the second innings to steer Royal College towards absolute safety. There was some uncertainty of them drawing the game when he walked into the middle with plenty of overs still left for the day.

The Peterites were sensing victory at one stage as they crawled their way back with the evergreen Lakshan Rodrigo leading the way. The leg spinner may have stole the limelight with another six wicket haul but it was young Charith Fernando who had the final laugh with a match saving knock of 61 not out.

Isipatana v Zahira

Isipatana College put up a tremendous performance to beat Zahira College outright by eight wickets in their inter-school cricket tournament match worked off at Maradana last week.

Isipatana's victory of course was always there from the moment they piled up that huge first innings total of 295 for 8. From there onwards it was a hard struggle for the Zahirians who put up a fighting performance to stretch the game into the final session of the second day.

The matchwinners for Isipatana College were their two leg spinners Vimukthi Deshapriya and Visuddhi Kaluwitharana who caused most of the damage in both innings.

They had the opportunity of enforcing the follow on quite easily and they never looked back from there onwards and went on to skittle out the opposition for 159 runs in the second innings.

This was of course not the ideal opposition Isipatana were expecting at this peak time of the season but nevertheless with the Big Match coming up in two week's time they would take up everything as a morale booster.

Wesley v Prince of Wales

Wesley College and Prince of Wales College figured in a high scoring draw in their annual inter-school cricket encounter worked off at Moratuwa last week.

The Wesleyites made their intentions quite clear that they were not prepared to take any kind of risk by occupying the crease throughout the opening day. They even continued to bat on the second day and ended up by getting a total of 288 runs.

One does not understand the motive behind the Wesleyites idea to bat for such a long period which would have been agonizing for the Cambrians. The home side responded in the same style as they batted until the end and succeeded in getting a first innings lead of three runs.

Even then the Cambrians were more positive in their approach towards the game with Shashan Silva, Gayath Mendis, Chamesh Shanaka and Isuru Gunasena all making significant contributions.

St. Anthony's v Ananda

St. Anthony's College, Katugastota took major honours in their annual inter-school cricket encounter against Ananda College worked off at Katugastota last week.

The Antonians had the satisfaction of taking a good first innings lead and they also did well to dismiss the strong Ananda batting line up for the second time in the match.

Shameer Munaz played the sheet anchor role for the Antonians who reached 239 in reply to Ananda's modest 179.

Thurstan v Maliyadeva

Thurstan College cruised to a morale boosting innings victory over Maliyadeva College Kurunegala in their annual inter-school fixture played at Stanley Wijesundera Mawatha last week.

The Thurstanites won this game purely because of their bowling attack as they dismissed the opposition twice for a score of under one hundred runs. They could not put enough runs on the board and were defending a modest 168.

But the Thurstan bowlers simply converted this total into a matchwinning one with a combined effort where Umesh Karunaratne and Shalaka Rangajeewa played a dominant role.

The pace spin combination really mesmerised the opposition as they captured four wickets each in the second innings to add the finishing touches in style.