Chathura Peiris a superb all-rounder

Achala RAMANAYAKE

Chathura Peiris is another fine cricketer from St. Peter's College Colombo, an institution that has produced many talented cricketers in the past. As this young schoolboy cricketer has shown his ability with both bat and ball this season, he has been an automatic choice for the selectors for the upcoming under 19 Bangladesh tour which is scheduled for mid April.

This all-rounder has performed well during the season both with the bat and the ball, as he managed to grab 82 wickets in 18 matches with seven five wicket hauls and his best bowling performance has been 9 wickets for 57 runs against Kalutara Vidyalaya and 9 wickets for 82 runs against Maris Stella College which shows the class of this left-arm medium pacer.

As a hard-hitting middle order batsman he scored over 630 runs during the season with six sixes and his personal best being 96 against Maliyadeva College, Kurunegala in which he scored a well deserved century. In the Joe-Pete encounter this year he scored a splendid 78 and captured two wickets for 30 runs to gain the most important Best all-rounder award. Also in the one day encounter he scored a superb 83 and later he was adjudged the best fielder.

This young lad was a member of the invited schools team for the twenty-twenty provincial tournament in 2008 and 2009 which was organized by the Sri Lanka cricket. In 2008 he performed well with given chance and in 2009 he only managed to play 2 matches and took five wickets for 43 runs with his best being 3 for 25.

The vice captain of the St. Peter's team this year where the team did well throughout the season and also in the Manchee Limited Over Tournament in which St. Peter's beat St. Joseph in the finals, Chathura has done a valuable job.

This 18 year old lad has gained a lot of experience as he toured Bangladesh in 2007 where he showed his strength both with the bat and the ball. He was able to capture 8 wickets and score over 80 runs in 4 matches and also was a member of the team for the tri-nation tournament against England and Pakistan in January 2009.

In 2008 he was a member of the world cup team that toured Malaysia where the Sri Lankan team couldn't perform upto expectations. But Chathura was able to perform well with the given chance. As this young highly talented all-rounder has another year to serve his alma-mater, he will be expecting to perform well and willing to be selected for the under 19 Sri Lanka team the world cup which is scheduled for 2010.