Joes clinch Munchee Gluco Fit Trophy

Chris Dhambarage

St. Joseph’s College added another feather to their cap when they defeated St. Sebastian’s College, Moratuwa by three wickets in the final of the 17th annual Munchee Gluco Fit inter-school six a side three day cricket tournament organized by the Old Wesleyites Sports Club and concluded at Campbell Park yesterday.

The Josephians successfully restricted their opponents to 61 for 2 and then reached their target with five deliveries to spare. Even then St. Joseph’s were in a spot of trouble at one stage as they lost two wickets in the very first over of the innings.

Sanitha de Mel brought the Sebastianites back into the game with a crucial double blow while removing Rosco Thatill and Chaturanga Kumara cheaply. However the pair of Supechala Jayatilleke and Jaan Jayasinghe turned the game in St. Joseph’s favour with an unfinished partnership for the third wicket.

The two left handers took full control of the situation from there onwards and collected 30 runs from the third and fourth overs that made a huge difference at the end. Man of the final Jayatilleke blasted 28 from just 12 deliveries while Jayasinghe provided excellent support with 21 from ten balls.

St. Sebastian’s College were helped by a 13 ball 25 from opener Sanitha de Mel after they had won the toss and elected to bat first. They of course went into the final after having pulled off a close victory over Richmond College, Galle in the semi-finals.

The Sebastianites put up a great performance on the field to defend their total of 55 runs following a disappointing effort with the bat.

Richmond simply threw away a chance of making it to the final as they lost wickets regularly with panic creeping into their batting. In contrast St. Joseph’s College enjoyed a huge 35 run victory over Nalanda College in their semi-final encounter. The Joes produced another fantastic batting effort to rattle a formidable 86 for 2 with Chaturanga Kumara smashing a half century from 16 deliveries.

The Nalandians in reply made an awful start to their run chase and were almost out of the contest when they slumped to 31 for 2 by the third over.

The results:

Quarter-finals: Richmond: 76 for 3 in 5 overs (Y. Lanka 43 n.o) beat Jaffna Combined Schools: 74 for 2 in 5 overs (E. Edward 34). St. Sebastian’s: 86 for 4 in 5 overs beat Ananda: 64 for 3 in 5 overs. Nalanda: 79 for 1 in 5 overs beat Lumbini MV: 47 in 4.2 overs. St. Joseph’s: 74 for no loss beat Mahanama MV: 56 in 4.5 overs.

Semi-finals: St. Joseph’s: 86 for 2 in 5 overs (C. Kumara 50) beat Nalanda: 51 for 3 in 5 overs (Sineth Gunawardena 17). St. Sebastian’s: 55 in 5 overs beat Richmond: 42 in 4 overs.

Final: St. Sebastian’s: 61 for 2 in 5 overs (S. de Mel 25) lost to St. Joseph’s: 62 for 2 in 4.1 overs (S. Jayatilleke 28 n.o, J. Jayasinghe 21 n.o, S. de Mel 2 for 5).

Special awards:

Best Bowler - Rosco Thatill (St. Joseph’s).

Best Fielder - Deshan Dias (St. Sebastian’s).

Most Number of Sixes - Chaturanga Kumara (St. Joseph’s).

Best Batsman - Chaturanga Kumara (St. Joseph’s).

Most Disciplined Team - Jaffna Combined Schools.

Man of the Final - Supechala Jayatilleke (St. Joseph’s).

Man of the Tournament - Rosco Thatill (St. Joseph’s)