Antonians - fourth outright win

S M Jiffry ABDEEN- Kandy Sports Correspondent

St Anthony's College, Kandy cruised to their fourth outright win for the season when they registered an easy nine wicket win over St Sylvester's College in their inter-school cricket match concluded at Police grounds Kandy yesterday.

The Sylvestrians taking first strike after being 45 for one at one stage, lost their next nine wickets for the addition of only 30 runs. Right arm off spinner Arvinda Premaratne returned the best figures of 5 for 16 off 14 overs.

The Antonians in their turn at the wickets were off to a shock start and were struggling at 52 for 7. It was at this stage Arvinda Premaratne and 16 year old Nimesha Gunasinghe came together and put on 71 valuable runs for the eighth wicket and this pulled the Antonians out of the woods.

Arvinda Premaratne made 55 with 5 fours and a six, while Nimesha Gunasinghe got 32 with 2 fours and a six. The Antonians made 150. Left arm spinner Nimesha Mendis took 4 for 45.

Faced with a deficit of 75 the Sylvestrians were dismissed for 105. Only Ruwantha Ekanayake batted with confidence to score 54 with 8 fours.

Off spinner Arvinda Premaratne took 3 for 30 - a match bag of 8 for 46.

The Antonians had to get 32 to win and they made 34 for one.

St Sylvester's College 75 all out in 34 overs (Menaka Nanayakkara 26, Sasanka Navaratne 12, Ruwantha Ekanayake 14, Arvinda Premaratne 5 for 16, Thushan Hettige 2 for 26, Aruna Bandara 2 for 4) and 105 all out in 39.5 overs (Menuka Nanayakkara 29, Ruwantha Ekanayake 54, Kanishka Ranaraja 3 for 23, Arvinda Premaratne 3 for 30, Aruna Bandara 3 for 28).

St Anthony's College 150 all out in 60.1 overs (Manoj Sarathchanda 20, Kavinda Pullikuttiarachchi 10, Kanishka Ranaraja 16, Nimesha Gunasinghe 32, Arvinda Premaratne 55, Nimesha Mendis 4 for 45, Waruna Wijesinghe 2 for 22) and 34 for 1 in 8.4 overs (Hiran Wickremasekera 12 n.o., Manoj Sarathchandra 15 n.o.).