Royal-Ananda clash in Twenty20 final today

Chris Dhambarage

Royal College set up a final showdown with arch rivals Ananda College while recording contrasting victories in their inter school under 19 Twenty20 tournament semi-finals worked off at the De Soysa Stadium in Moratuwa yesterday.

Royal edged out the giant killers Mahinda College Galle by seven runs in a close encounter while the Anandians completely outplayed Maris Stella College Negombo by 96 runs in a one sided encounter.

Royal’s victory was built around some splendid batting from the Sri Lanka youth cap Kusal Janith Perera who struck back to back half centuries to help his team reach a formidable 142 runs.

The aggressive middle order batsman hit a top score of 67 from just 39 deliveries inclusive of five sixes and five boundaries. In addition Kithruwan Vithanage also plundered a sparkling 43 from 39 deliveries.

Meanwhile Ananda College produced a devastating performance to beat Maris Stella College Negombo by a huge margin of 96 runs in the second semi-final encounter. The Anandians rallied around through a superb half century from Madumal Jayaratne (61) to reach an impressive 170 for 6 and then skittled out their opponents for just 74 runs.

The final between Royal and Ananda will be played at the same venue today commencing at 1.30 p.m followed by the awards ceremony.

Royal: 142 in 19.5 overs (K. Perera 67, K. Vithanage 43, S. de Silva 3 for 27, U. Jayasekera 3 for 7, N. Tharaka 2 for 13).

Mahinda: 135 in 19.1 overs (D. Rajakaruna 49, N. Tharaka 25, Y. Abeykoon 2 for 20, H. Mawjood 2 for 26).

Ananda: 170 for 6 in 20 overs (R. Herath 33, M. Jayaratne 61, D. Chandimal 45, D. Gamage 2 for 16).

Maris Stella: 74 in 17.1 overs (A. Fernando 24, R. Sharmein 3 for 11)