Dushan an all rounder in the making

Chris DHAMBARAGE

To claim one hundred wickets is the ultimate goal of every schoolboy cricketer. And to perform that task twice in successive seasons is quite a remarkable achievement.

Nineteen year old Dushan Vimukthi Wimalasekera of Royal College Panadura has performed the near impossibility and is heading towards more glory having made a lasting impression during the concluded season.

The dynamic right arm off spinner ended up with a superb tally of 123 wickets following his success last year where he captured a total of 103 wickets. The right hand batsman also came closer to completing the unique double and finished with a total of 901 runs.

The brilliant all rounder was rewarded for his achievements on the field when he was selected as the runner up in the Sunday Observer Mobitel Most Popular Outstation Schoolboy Cricketer for 2011.

This has been a wonderful year for Dushan Vimukthi who has dominated the school cricket scene both as a batsman and bowler. As the captain of the team he has led from the front with some outstanding contributions throughout the season.

In fact it has been a memorable year for Dushan Vimukthi and his team as well because Royal College Panadura were able to create a piece of history by recording as many as eight victories out of the 14 outings.

As a result they were selected as the Best Outstation team and the Best team in the Western Province by the Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association.

The most significant feature in their performances is that they had the honor of overcoming some of the more fancied teams from Colombo.

In fact Royal College, Panadura had the distinction of defeating Thurstan, Wesley, Kingswood, Tissa MMV Kalutara, Sri Jayawardenapura MV, Isuru Central College Habarana, Takshika MMV Horana and Siri Piyaratane MMV Padukka.

This was a tremendous achievement for an outstation school which was playing some of these division one teams for the first time. As the entire team rallied around well it was the individual brilliance of Dushan Vimukthi that eventually made the difference.

His record speaks volumes because he has captured five wickets in an innings on 16 occasions and has claimed ten wickets or more in a match on four occasions. In the batting department he has been equally brilliant with a total of eight half centuries.

The dashing right hander of course could have converted all these fifties into a three figure mark but as the captain he always concentrated on winning the match and has thrown his wicket away on many occasions.

He eventually completed his maiden one hundred for the current season during the match against Siri Piyaratane MMV, Padukka but unfortunately fell short by few runs from reaching the magical one thousand run mark for this year.

Even then Dushan Vimukthi always worked hard towards the success of his team and the match against Thurstan College is a classic example. His team was bowled out for a modest 113 runs but Vimukthi mesmerized the opposition with a five wicket haul to skittle out the opponents for just 80 runs.

Royal Panadura made 152 in their second attempt while setting the home side a victory target of 180 runs. Dushan Vimukthi then produced a repeat performance with his second five wicket haul in the match and helped his team to snatch a thrilling four run outright victory.

He never looked back from there onwards and went on to play a major role in all their stunning victories including against Wesley College, and Kingswood College, Kandy.

Dushan Vimukthi's main ambition is to perform well in the current SLC Under 23 Division One tournament and to represent the country as an all rounder in the near future.