Ekanayake stars for St Sylvester’s

Brilliant 136 and 12 for 54:

S M Jiffrey ABDEEN -Kandy Sports Corr

Ruwantha Ekanayake with a brilliant all-round performance of 136 and 12 for 54 spearheaded St Sylvester’s College to an innings and 28 win over Kegalle Vidyalaya in their inter-school cricket match played at the Public grounds, Kegalle.

The Sylvester’s winning the toss and electing to bat first declared at 229 for 9 dec Ruwantha Ekanayake top scored with a hard hit 136 which included 17 fours and 2 sixes off 150 balls. He was associated in a third stand of 122 with Ashan Wanigasekera who made 45 with 6 fours.

Kegalle Vidyalaya in their turn at the wickets 102 for 3 at one stage but a middle order batting slump saw them lose their next 7 wickets for 36 runs.

Right arm leg spinner Ruwantha Ekanayake ran through middle order batting to end up with figures of 6 for 36 off 14.3 overs with 4 of them being Maidens. Trailing behind by 141 runs in the first innings, Kegalle Vidyalaya were off to a reasonably good start with the openers Chaluka Weerasinghe 59 (9 fours) and S Witharanage (17) putting on 77 before being seperated.

From a healthy position of 77 for no loss, Kegalu Vidyalaya reeled to 84 for 5-losing five wickets for 7 runs. They never recovered from this. Another batting collapse saw them slide from 92 for 5 to 109 for 9 before they were all out for 113. It was leg spinner Ruwantha Ekanayake who wrecked the Kegalu Vidyalaya’s innings by capturing 6 for 18 with the excellent figure of 9.2-2-18-6. This gave him a match bag of 12 for 54.

This was Sylvestrians first outright win for the season.

The score:

St. Sylvester’s College 279 for 9 wickets declared off 60 overs (Menuka Nanayakkara 23, Ruwantha Ekanayake 136, Ashan Wanigasekera 45, Niluka Kandaderage 18, Kalpa Bandaranayake 2 for 54, Chaluka Weerasinghe 2 for 32, Udara Tillakasiri 2 for 68).

Kegalu Vidyalaya 138 all out in 51 overs (Tharaka Somatillake 30, Kalpa Bandaranayake 49, Kapila Ranasinghe 19, Ruwantha Ekanayake 6 for 36, Niluka Kandaderage 4 for 26) and 113 all out in 41.2 overs (Chaluka Weerasinghe 59, S Witharanage 17, Faiz Ahamed 2 for 36, Ruwantha Ekanayake 6 for 18)