Royal in resounding win over Sebastianites

Chris Dhambarage

St. Peter’s third successive victory this season was somewhat overshadowed by a remarkable effort from Royal College who powered their way to register a resounding innings victory over St. Sebastian’s College on their home grounds at Reid Avenue last week.

Royal’s second win for the current season in fact came in the most spectacular manner with the match ending in less than four sessions. This was of course quite predictable from the moment St. Sebastian’s College were shot out for a mere 25 runs in their first innings.

This was mainly due to some brilliant seam bowling from Bhanuka Rajapaksa who snapped up four wickets including a hat-trick from just eight deliveries without conceding a run.

This could easily be one of the most destructive bowling spells produced at Reid Avenue and also during the current season. This was also the first time that Rajapaksa has stolen the limelight as a bowler following his sparkling century against Thurstan College last week. He simply proved his all round potential with a sensational spell of bowling where he captured a wicket in his second, third and fourth deliveries.

Lakshitha de Silva also had a highly successful outing as a bowler that helped Royal College add the finishing touches quite easily. His four wicket haul certainly wrapped up the Sebastianites innings in just 17.2 overs.

The batting honours went to Kithruwan Vithanage who played the sheet anchor role with a magnificent knock of 142 runs as Royal piled up over three hundred runs in their first innings. Vithanage held the Royal batting together with a great amount of concentration and determination with the back up support coming from Haroon Mawjood.

St. Peters v Kalutara MV

St. Peter’s College powered their way to record the third successive victory in the current season while overcoming Kalutara MV outright by an innings and 113 runs in their inter school fixture worked off at Bambalapitiya last week.

The Peterites stuck to their task and continued with the same momentum after having earlier brought down Joseph Vaz College Wennappuwa and Trinity College Kandy respectively. This time they completed their mission quite convincingly with plenty of time and overs to spare. Their success of course was always there from the moment they bowled out their opponents for just 86 runs in the first innings. Paceman Chatura Peiris turned out to be the chief destroyer with a matchbag of nine wickets.

He was well supported by Vinod Perera and Akshu Fernando as the trio combined quite effectively to bundle out the visitors for 173 runs in their second innings. Kalutara MV of course managed to double their first innings total with an improved performance in their second attempt.

However they just could not recover from the heavy damage caused with the first innings debacle that helped St. Peter’s College build up a huge first innings lead. In fact the Peterites proved their strength in the batting department once again by rattling up a massive 372 for 6 in the first innings.

Their innings was built around a splendid knock of 157 from middle order batsman and Sri Lanka youth player Angelo Perera who showed great character and application in making another big score for his side.

The rest of the batting rallied around through him with Angelo Emmanuel, Andy Berenger and Chatura Peiris making valuable contributions to the total. Incidentally Chatura Peiris› effort had a great amount of significance because he scored his half century from just 12 deliveries.

St. Benedict’s v Wesley

St. Benedict’s College had the satisfaction of tasting success for the first time this season as they defeated Wesley College outright by an innings and 36 runs in their inter school fixture played at Kotahena last week.

This could certainly be a great morale booster for the Benedictines who have been at the receiving end in most of the matches in the recent past. But this year they seem to have found the right combination and will be looking forward to creating more upsets as the season progresses. St. Benedict’s of course went in for this game as the underdogs and the Wesleyites had a better track record in their earlier outings.

But some outstanding spin bowling from Dilanka Auwardt helped the lads from Kotahena to turn tables and dictate terms from the beginning. Auwardt is no doubt their main strike bowler and he lived upto expectations by finishing with a matchbag of eight wickets. This was in fact a repeat performance of last week where he claimed a matchbag of nine wickets in their drawn fixture against Isipatana College at the same venue.

But this time he was able to lead his side towards victory as Wesley College were dismissed for under one hundred runs in both innings. Auwardt played a key role by returning excellent figures of five wickets for 25 following his three wicket haul in the first innings.

He was well supported by two other bowlers Dilshan Perera and Suren Silva who played havoc with the Wesley batting in both innings. The former led the way with a five wicket haul and the latter added the finishing touches with a similar performance that brought the downfall of Wesley College.

St. Joseph’s v De Mazenod

St. Joseph’s hopes of registering their second straight victory this season was foiled by a determine De Mazenod outfit as their inter school encounter ended in a draw at Kandana during the weekend. The Josephians were well set to add the finishing touches for another splendid performance where they succeeded in taking a good first innings lead.

This was after they had dismissed the opposition for a modest 183 runs largely due to a five wicket haul from their fast bowler Nishika de Silva.

The St. Joseph’s strong batting line up then delivered the goods at the correct time while compiling a formidable 277 that helped them to take the initiative and to open the gates for another convincing victory.

However De Mazenod College had different ideas as they occupied the crease during the last two sessions to force a creditable draw at the end. The odds were very much against them but they survived few anxious moments and frustrated the Josephians with a stubborn batting performance.

All rounder Shamal Perera played an important role for De Mazenod College while stroking a fighting half century in the second innings following his four wicket haul. De Mazenod College finished their second innings on 163 for 8 with Chaturanga Kumara causing most of the damage.

Ananda v Trinity

Ananda College had to be satisfied with a draw in their annual inter school cricket encounter against Trinity College worked off at the Asgiriya Stadium last week.

The Anandians will be quite disappointed because they could have pulled off the game quite easily if not for bad weather which intervened on both days. In fact the Trinitians were struggling at 88 for 7 in their second innings after they were set a victory target of 212 runs from 38 overs.

The Anandians soon turned the game in their favour while capturing a couple of quick wickets before bad light came into Trinity’s rescue with 18 overs still remaining. In the first innings too Trinity College struggled to reach even the three figure mark and were dismissed for 118.

The only notable performance for Trinity College was the bowling of off spinner Rushan Jaleel who bagged six wickets to restrict the powerful Ananda batting line up to 180 runs.

However the Anandians made amends to a certain extent in their second innings with Dinesh Chandimal leading the way. The Sri Lanka youth player struck an elegant 91 with two sixes and eight boundaries that helped his team to set a challenging target at the end.